Ratings for the debut of John Cena's Fox series 'American Grit' disappoint

His latest venture outside of professional wrestling isn't off to a great start for the Face That Runs the Place.

John Cena's American Grit debuted on Fox last night (Thursday, April 14) and despite heavy promotion from the host and network only drew 2,433,000 viewers - the lowest of any show on a major network in its timeslot (9PM Eastern).

What's worse, the reality competition lost nearly 2 million viewers from its lead-in, Bones, which had 4,357,000 pairs of eyes on it at 8PM Eastern (Thanks to PWInsider for these numbers).

Unlike many other mainstream projects by its stars, WWE was pretty silent in discussing the series. They have a clip up now on WWE.com, but it's not prominently featured - just one of the many videos that rotate on their front page. American Grit does compete with the second hour of SmackDown on USA Network, but there's no confirmation that's been an issue.

Cena was last seen in WWE at WrestleMania 32, and hasn't been mentioned since. We've received mixed messages about his return from shoulder surgery, with the 15-time World champ saying he's cleared and awaiting word from the company about a comeback, while third party reports say he might not be back until July.

There are ten episodes of American Grit. They're scheduled to run through June.

Our own Bill Hanstock, who can even make a hater like me like Total Divas, will have a review of the premeire episode this weekend.