There are slight mistakes, and then there are horrible mistakes. It seems TNA President Dixie Carter learned the difference in a hard way. It was rumored a couple months back that Dixie sent out a scathing email ripping Discovery Communications. It was meant to be seen by only someone within TNA. The email ended up going to a Discovery executive by mistake. This was all said to be a rumor, and many people downplayed it actually happening.
According to the Wrestling Observer , it not only happened, but it also got as bad as you probably expected it to. This email was sent out right before the story hit that TNA was going to be cancelled from Discovery property, Destination America. The email was not complimentary at all about Discovery and how they were handling the Impact Wrestling show on Destination America at the time.
The person in question that she accidentally sent the email to was Marc Graboff, who happens to be the President of the network. The best part here is, that isn’t even the half of it. The complaint was about Discovery not releasing information on DVR ratings (which pretty much no one does). Carter actually called Graboff what some might say were very derogatory names, and insulted his intelligence. Let’s keep in mind who was talking about DVR ratings, though.
On top of all of this, she was said to have CC’d Group President of Destination America Harvey Schlieff and several other Discovery executives.
Schlieff was nice enough to have reportedly responded to Dixie’s email, saying the following.
“Sorry that she was so upset with the way the information was being released.”
Graboff happened to be CC’d to that very email, as well.
It goes without saying, but there were said to be several people both at Discovery and within TNA who heard about the blunder who were rolling their eyes at how such a mistake could have happened. Especially involving Dixie Carter herself, and one who knew that Destination America had an opt-out clause in their contract with TNA.
Could this have ultimately led to Destination America deciding to remove Impact Wrestling? Many think that Destination America was already souring on TNA well before this email went out, but the email didn’t help matters at all.
To keep things in a realistic world, DVR numbers are rarely counted and used to promote a show or network. The reason for this is because live numbers are counted much easier, and the money from advertisers is normally made during the first run broadcast as it happens, not as a person watches later on. The reason for this is said to be because a person could wait to watch a program for days or months after the original air date, and counting the DVR time would lead to several issues. On top of this, people fast forward through commercials and it ruins what an advertiser might spend to air a commercial on a network.
In fact, WWE touts that they are not DVRable because they want advertisers to want to advertise on their network. That means the DVR numbers Carter is always harping about do not matter at all at the end of the day.
Despite all of this, Destination America has extended TNA through to February of 2016. TNA is headed to India this December to tape shows that will air in January. They are said to have taped a bunch of shows to air through the end of the year, but many believe TNA will end up having to do best-of material, as it is not believed that they have enough content, as of now, to get through December.
The taping in India is said to be something Destination America is not high on. They were against TNA going to the U.K. for taped shows, as the entire point of the network is things to find in America itself. There are many reasons TNA is most likely getting cancelled officially after February of 2016, and leadership is most likely the main one.
[IMG Credits: YouTube, Uproxx, press.discovery.com]