Dana White’s Power Slap once again squanders the majority of its lead-in from AEW Wrestling
The good news for Dana White and his slap fighting league is that the show did not slip below last week’s low of 275,000 viewers. The bad news is that the Week 5 episode of Power Slap: Road to the Title didn’t gain viewers over last week. The 10 p.m. TBS programming of White’s latest attempt to break into a new “sport” held steady at 275,000 viewers for its February 15 broadcast.
The show, which got the attention of two members of the U.S. Congress on Wednesday, once again squandered the majority of its lead-in from the 8 p.m. AEW Wrestling broadcast. AEW was the No. 4 rated cable show for Wednesday evening. The TBS broadcast drew 824,000 viewers and a 0.27 rating in the 18-49 demographic. Power Slap’s ratings in that age group were 0.09. The slap fighting broadcast was the No. 55 rated cable show on the evening.
Before TBS showed the fifth episode of Power Slap, New Jersey’s Ninth District Representative Bill Pascrell Jr. and Nebraska’s Second District Representative Don Bacon reached out to TBS and Warner Bros. Discovery regarding their involvement in “The Power Slap.”
Pascrell wrote of the show, “Where are the warnings to this mindless violence? Traumatic brain injury isn’t entertainment.”
Here’s our letter demanding answers from @warnerbros @TBSNetwork on their violent new TV show glorifying traumatic brain injury risks. pic.twitter.com/MV4rruLv6a
— Bill Pascrell, Jr. (@BillPascrell) February 15, 2023
As the letter notes, Pascrell and Bacon are the “co-founders and co-leaders of the Congressional Traumatic Brain Injury Task Force and the authors of the Traumatic Brain Injury Act.”
The congressmen “strongly suggested” that Warner Bros and TBS “reconsider broadcasting this problematic programming.” They also slammed the “paltry $2000 and optional cursory screening from the Cleveland Clinic” in exchange for the traumatic brain injury these people will receive.
Below are the ratings for the first four weeks from Power Slap:
Week 1: 295,000 viewers, 0.10 share, No 45. rated program for the night.
Week 2: 413,000 viewers, 0.13 share, No. 30 rated program for the night.
Week 3: 284,000 viewers, 0.09 share, No. 51 rated program for the night.
Week 4: 275,000 viewers, 0.08 share, No. 68 rated program for the night.
TBS delayed the debut broadcast of Power Slap for a week following TMZ’s release of White slapping his wife on New Year’s Eve while he and his family were on vacation. White said of the delay, “We pushed it back a week because I was supposed to come back (from vacation) and do this whole media tour, which obviously wasn’t going to happen when I got back.”