Dana White’s Power Slap League on TBS drew 295,000 viewers per Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily. The debut episode failed to capitalize on its lead-in, AEW Dynamite, which finished with 969,000 viewers and 0.31 in the A18-49 demo.
The new league created by Dana White and authorized by the Nevada State Athletic Commission aired its first episode which was actually taped 10 months ago. The league is scheduled to hold a PPV at a yet to be determined date. The show, which is based on The Ultimate Fighter model of competitors living in the same house, featured several ‘slap fighting’ bouts which looked (perhaps on purpose) heavily regulated for fighter safety.
Yet, it failed to pull in the target audience as it only drew 0.10 in the A18-49 demo and finished 45th overall in cable ratings. AEW Dynamite 3rd in the cable ratings.
Payout Perspective:
Before the telecast, many of the UFC fighters, friends of the UFC and White posted on social media how excited they were about the slap league. But, most people were not interested in people standing in front of each other getting slapped.
Undoubtedly a flop of a debut as I expected the ratings to be slightly on par with AEW Dynamite just because everyone is interested in checking out a car wreck. Its hard for me to foresee this series making its 10 or so episodes unless Endeavor/Zuffa paid for the air time (which is the same thing the Fertittas did to put TUF on Spike). But from a pure ratings standpoint, I doubt anything above 295,000 viewers.
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