Tony Khan hints at a new AEW show for TNT
On Full Gear Media Scrum, Tony Khan threw a strong hint at a new show on TNT. Khan was asked about Dynamite moving to TBS this January. He spoke about the situation stating:
“Obviously going forward everybody knows Dynamite is going to move to TBS after January, but Rampage is staying on TNT and, as far as I know, that’s the slot. Plus Battle of the Belts is coming in January too. Even though Dynamite is moving to TBS, we will actually have another show coming to TNT so it’s exciting.”
All videos from the media scrum have been uploaded on my YT channel. Here is the last one with Tony Khan. Covered many topics. #AEWFullGear
youtu.be/LBPO96O83mQ
On November 1, Andrew Zarian of the Mat Men Podcast first reported the story on Twitter. It was also covered by Nick Lombardi on Sportskeeda. It was reported that Battle of the Belts will be the first of the quarterly events scheduled to take place on TNT.
After the spectacular show on Sunday, Tony Khan met journalists and expressed his excitement about the success of the show. He was also asked about various topics, including TV ratings and changes in time slots. Speaking about Rampage's time slot, Khan said:
“I definitely think it’s cool having wrestling on Friday nights even if it’s not the best time to draw viewers. There’s something to it, a lot of us grew up on that and it’s a great block and if you’re a wrestling fan that wants to watch everything, there’s a lot of great wrestling on Friday nights sometimes.”
Does Rampage need a better time slot for improved ratings?
Tony Khan thinks it is not fair to compare the ratings of Dynamite and Rampage. He also believes Rampage is doing pretty well in its current time slot:
“It’s frequently the number one show in its time slot and it’s beating everything we’ve faced head to head. Very often it’s been one of the top shows, if not the number one show a number of times, even out of that time slot on all of Friday night TV.”
During the AEW Full Gear media scrum, Tony Khan made it clear not to expect AEW Rampage to move from its timeslot anytime soon. #AEW #AEWRampage #TonyKhan 411mania.com/wrestling/tony… https://t.co/sfqMcoki5f
The latest episode of AEW Rampage (Novermber 12) drew 480,000 viewers. This was down 13.7% from last week’s show, which averaged 556,000 viewers in the fast nationals. In the key 18-49 demographic, it drew 232,000 viewers. This was down 13.1% from previous week’s 267,00 viewers in the fast nationals.
For comparison, SmackDown drew an average of 1.999 million viewers. The first hour drew 2.059 million viewers and hour two dropped to 1.938 million viewers.
Do you think more shows on TV will help AEW and Pro Wrestling in general? Tell us in the comment below.