After seeing solid gains in week 2 thanks to a strong lead-in from AEW wrestling, Power Slap ratings hit a new low.
Dana White’s Power Slap League saw a big jump in viewers last week with a strong lead-in from an AEW Wrestling broadcast that featured a tribute to the late Jay Briscoe and the promotional debut of Mark Briscoe. In Week 3 of its scheduled 8-episode run, the slap fighting reality show again received a strong lead-in from AEW, but the broadcast ended up way down at No. 51 for Wednesday night on cable.
According to ShowBuzzDaily, AEW Wrestling had 901,000 viewers in the 8 p.m. slot. AEW had a .31 rating in the 18-49 demographic and a .22 rating with 18-34-year-old viewers. With those numbers, AEW finished in second for the night in original cable telecasts. ESPN’s NBA game at 7:43 p.m. led the night’s overall cable ratings on Wednesday with 1.036 million viewers and a .34 rating among 18-49 year-olds and .27 in the 18-34 demographic.
This week, Power Slap finished six slots lower than their debut at no. 45, with 284,000 viewers. The 10 p.m. broadcast on February 1 had a 0.09 rating among 18-49-year-olds. Power Slap’s numbers were 617,000 viewers less than AEW’s.
For the second episode of Power Slap: Road to the Title on TBS, AEW Wrestling had 1.003 million viewers in the 8 p.m. slot. That strong lead-in provided the pseudo-sport promotion a bump last week, landing Power Slap at no. 30 with 413,000 viewers. Episode 2 captured a .13 rating among 18-49-year-olds and .08 in the 18-34 demographic.
The debut episode of Power Slap—which TBS delayed a week after White was caught on video slapping his wife, while on a family vacation in Mexico—was No. 45 in the top 50 cable telecasts for Wednesday, January 18, 2023. The debut episode pulled a reported 295,000 viewers and a 0.10 rating in the 18-49 demographic.