Warner Bros Discovery CCO Talks Trying To Capitalize On AEW's TV Audience

After "AEW Dynamite" went off the air last week, the show gave way to the controversial new series, "Power Slap." The show has been in the news quite recently, both for the low ratings it drew in its debut, the potential of head trauma for contestants and the controversy surrounding the show's creator, Dana White, after he was caught on video slapping his wife weeks ago. White's slap led to questions on whether the show would air, as well as whether it should air. 

In an interview, with Deadline, WBD's Chairwoman and Chief Content Officer, Kathleen Finch, confirmed there were concerns about airing the series, though not enough to pull the show. She also revealed how WBD is looking to capture the type of audience AEW draws for both "Power Slap" and other future projects.

"This is an experiment," Finch said. "The goal is, we are making shows for our fans, that's who we work for. Fans of wrestling have a lot of overlap with the fans of this and it's huge on social media so the idea really is, if we can take something that's huge on social, bring it to a linear audience giving the fans what they want."

"This may surprise you to know that I did not know much about wrestling before I took this job. I know, I seem like a wrestling fan, but I'm not. But I did have to learn a lot about the audience. A lot of families that watch [wrestling], I was very surprised to learn this. I have huge respect for this audience. AEW wrestling airs on two of our networks, TNT and TBS — on both nights it kills. Finding something that speaks to that audience, that would be gold."