With TNT's extremely busy sporting schedule over the years, AEW has seen some of its shows pre-empted, moved to a different night, or not air at all in favor of other events. However, TNT are going to be experimenting with AEW in just under two weeks time, as the March 22 episode of "AEW Collision" will now air in two parts. Dave Meltzer broke down the experiment on a recent edition of "Wrestling Observer Radio," stating the show's will in two one hour portions on March 22 and 23 immediately after the NCAA basketball tournament, and that might given AEW another big lead-in ratings wise.
"The estimated time to start, it could be a little later, probably not earlier, would be 11PM eastern, and 8PM pacific because they're going to be on the regular feed..." Meltzer said "The idea is to give them the benefit of tworather than do a two hour show with the second hour being from midnight to 1AM, which the ratings would fall, but they're going to give them one hour each night, coming right after the tournament game, so in theory, they should get two big ratings. At least the Saturday rating should be big, the Sunday, because it's unfamiliar, maybe not."
Meltzer explained that, much like Grand Slam Australia where AEW and Warner Brothers Discovery were very happy with the ratings, would get a lot of new eyes on the company, particularly on the Sunday. He would then round off by noting that this is another example of WBD's vote of confidence with AEW and platform them in high-profile TV slots, further discrediting the claims some members of the wrestling community make about WBD not being happy with AEW's performances on TV.
Please credit "Wrestling Observer Radio" when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
