TNT/TBS General Manager Praises AEW, TNT Touts This Week's AEW Dynamite Ratings
Brett Weitz, WarnerMedia's General Manager for TBS, TNT and TruTV, had major praise for AEW this week, touting how the company has been killing it in the ratings with the new Rampage show.
Variety recently issued their Fall 2021 TV Survey to various network executives, and one of the questions was, "What's your new show that we shouldn't sleep on?"
Weitz responded to that question with praise for AEW. He also plugged the new "Rhodes To The Top" unscripted series with Cody Rhodes and Brandi Rhodes.
"AEW Rampage," Weitz responded. "The second series from AEW on TNT, Rampage has just been killing it in the ratings. We knew when Tony Khan and All Elite Wrestling came to us just over two years ago with the mantra of 'a show by wrestlers for wrestling fans' that they had something special, but none of us knew how deeply the fans would respond and crave more programming. To that end, I would also say, 'don't sleep on Rhodes to the Top' – a new unscripted series for TNT featuring top AEW talent Brandi and Cody Rhodes outside of the ring. Soo, I guess no sleep for you all?"
On a related note, TNT has issued a new press release touting the success of this week's Dynamite episode. As reported before, last night's Grand Slam edition of Dynamite from New York City drew 1.273 million viewers with a 0.48 rating in the key 18-49 demographic. Dynamite ranked #1 on the Cable Top 150 for the fifth week in a row. You can click here for our full ratings report for this week's Dynamite.
TNT issued the following press release to tout the ratings success:
TNT's "AEW: DYNAMITE" Is Wednesday's No.1 Cable Program Five Weeks Straight
AEW: Dynamite" is continuing its red hot-streak as Wednesday's No. 1 cable program among P18-49 for the fifth week in a row.
Since debuting in October 2019, AEW has continued to defy expectations with its meteoric rise, game-changing content, world-class roster, collaboration with other leagues and a highly entertaining product that draws the youngest-skewing wrestling audience on television. This unprecedented approach propelled AEW to its first No. 1 Wednesday ranking on April 14, 2021, followed by numerous top spots, including the current five-week winning streak.
See highlights below:
"AEW: Dynamite" – Week 103 – Wed 8p-10p
627K P18-49 / 215K P18-34 / 1.3M P2+
* Ranked #1 on cable for Wednesday among P18-49 for the fifth week in a row
* +9% vs. prior week in P18-49 and +8% in total viewers
* 2021 median age tracking at 48 with 69% male skew
The first-ever professional wrestling event to take place at Arthur Ashe Stadium at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, NY, was also AEW's most attended event to date. AEW World Champion Kenny Omega went head-to-head with Bryan Danielson. Sting and Darby Allin took on FTR in tag team action. Cody Rhodes was back against Malaki Black. AEW Women's World Champion Dr. Britt Baker took on Ruby Soho. MJF went up against Brian Pillman Jr. and CM Punk spoke before his first TV match in over seven years.
"AEW: Dynamite" airs every Wednesday from 8-10 p.m. ET on TNT and attracts the youngest wrestling audience on television. The new fight-forward show "AEW: Rampage" airs every Friday from 10-11 p.m. ET. AEW's multi-platform content also includes "AEW Dark" and "AEW Dark: Elevation," two weekly professional wrestling YouTube series, "Being the Elite," a weekly behind-the-scenes YouTube series, and "AEW Unrestricted," a weekly podcast series. For more info, check out Twitter.com/AEW; Instagram.com/AllEliteWrestling; YouTube.com/AEW; Facebook.com/AllEliteWrestling.