His television show, "Conspiracy Theory With Jesse Ventura" premiered on TruTV in early December delivering the 17-year-old channel's largest-ever premiere audience – 1.6 million people – and maintaining it during subsequent episodes. It held onto high Nielsen ratings despite being panned by critics because the masses love it. TruTV's slogan is "Not Reality. Actuality." This is a baffling mantra, but it's the perfect place for a show like Ventura's.

 

"We developed it for our audience," one that is "usually fascinated with inside worlds they don't normally have access to," said Darren Campo, senior vice president of programming at the channel. But the show is very much about Ventura's "voice," he adds.

 

"I'm doing this show to wake people up," Ventura says in a promo. Throughout the first season (which ended Jan. 13 but lives on through YouTube and an upcoming marathon) the former wrestler dons a little gray ponytail and a black leather blazer, expertly fitted to his massive frame, as he sternly yet charismatically commands his team of "investigators," most of whom inexplicably have British accents – perhaps so they'll more closely recall Agent 007.