I can only speak from experience but when I went to the Smackdown and NXT tapings in April, no one seemed to care about NXT at all.
However, what I will say is that it was pretty early in the season and nothing had really happened in the season yet. I mean, it did get better and the fans were definitely more into the competition as it progressed,. The thing is though, at this stage, no one really enjoys NXT at a live event. The fans are always quiet and treat is as if it is some sort of added bonus to a Smackdown taping. I always wonder if the WWE would manage to fill an arena if the NXT tapings were sold alone. I seriously think that they would have a hard time trying to find enough people to fill an arena if this was the case.
So yes, I would assume that many, like myself, just thought of NXT as an added incentive instead of going to see Raw. I mean, you certainly get a lot more action with the NXT and Smackdown tapings but there is no doubt that Raw is the more dominant brand. The extra action was what tipped the Smackdown tapings in my favour and exactly why I went to that. When I was there, I tried to be as much of an involved fan as I could be. However, I was definitely in the minority as people didn’t really seem to care about the show. This was at a time when Daniel Bryan was on the show and people still wouldn’t cheer for the guys.
So, I would definitely agree that not a lot of people care about NXT in the live crowds and there is not a great deal that can be done. People just put up with it until Smackdown comes on and unless they can get better talent to pump up the crowd, then they are not going to have a lot of success with NXT outside of the diehard fans.
NXT is filmed before Smackdown too.