Should be interesting to see the ratings....Friday has always been a low-rated night, but now Smackdown won't be going against CSI, Survivor and all the big shows on Thursday nights.
I know that I'd I'll probably be more likely to watch it now since it won't be going up against "The O.C.", er, I mean "CSI" ... yeah that's what I meant.
And plus it won't be competing with the Thursday night college football game either.
So does Vince have any say in this whole matter?
(edited by Mayhem on 19.5.05 1032) BABY BOY MAYHEM
I think he can ask politely and there's probably some contract provision which prevents them from moving the show to Monday, but he's at the whims of the UPN scheduler.
This contract only runs through 2006 anyway, right? So even if he doesn't like the move to Fridays (which limits the audience certainly, but it's not like they're going to have much in the way of competition), they only have to do it for a year.
That said, I'll be able to watch Smackdown AND Survivor now, which I think is nice anyway.
Tonight I wanna ruin my life, I wanna throw it all away, In a spectacular way
The teen and young adult demo will be hurt by this. I dont really watch Smackdown anymore but I know i wont be staying at home on a Friday night for that.
I LOVE WRESTLING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Originally posted by JWstormThe teen and young adult demo will be hurt by this. I dont really watch Smackdown anymore but I know i wont be staying at home on a Friday night for that.
Yeah, I can definitely see this hurting them. I will probably tape it, but I doubt everyone will.
For the curious, the shows now going HEAD-TO-HEAD with Smackdown!
ABC: Supernanny, Hope & Faith, Hot Properties CBS: The Ghost Whisperer, Threshold FOX: Bernie Mac Show, Malcolm in the Middle, The Gate NBC: Three Wishes, Dateline NBC The WB: What I Like About You, Twins, Reba, Living with Fran
And the shows NOW on Thursday...
ABC: Alias, The Night Stalker CBS: Survivor 11, CSI FOX: The OC, Reunion NBC: Joey, Will & Grace, The Apprentice The WB: Smallville, Everwood
Somehow, I think this is the better option. Smackdown has a better shot at better ratings when it's not up against three or four of the hottest shows on TV.
Wasn't UPN launched with the intent of snagging young male viewers, what with SD and Enterprise and all? So now they're reversing course and deciding to, from the sound of it, compete with Lifetime, We, Oxygen, et al?
Ling-Ling into battle go Fulfill destiny of the soul Sever skull of adversary Shove it in the poo-poo hole
All the children sing: Kill kill kill kill die die die Kill kill kill kill die die die....
As [UPN President] Dawn Ostroff says, "It's where the girls are, and where the boys want to be."
Does this sound like a network planning on keeping around SmackDown! for long?
Networks change their tunes from year to year depedning on what they believe will draw in advertisers, but this does not seem promising.
Also noteworthy is Meltzer declaing this "shocking"; he had no idea, and that means the rank and file of WWE didn't either. Wonder who did know.
(edited by thecubsfan on 19.5.05 1414)
SO even though those rumours from a few months back about Smackdown being cancelled were false, it looks like it's gonna be off UPN anyway. I know we've had the discussion here about how ratings do not equal advertising dollars, at least as far as wrestling, but still, for a network like UPN to essentially give the shaft to its highest rated programming, the only one that's proven, is really surprising.
So now for the next year and a half, we can hear the continual rumours about how the brand split is gonna end. I hope it doesn't, for a number of reasons, unless they dramatically change the composition of the roster and change the way they present their TV shows. Of course, maybe if the brand split does end, we can look forward to a re-do of the Invasion storyline, ecept this time done well. Or maybe I'm just getting way too far ahead of the game at this point.
Originally posted by Shem the PenmanWasn't UPN launched with the intent of snagging young male viewers, what with SD and Enterprise and all? So now they're reversing course and deciding to, from the sound of it, compete with Lifetime, We, Oxygen, et al?
And UPN in its approximately decade of existance battles the WB for the 5th spot among the 4 networks. After 10 years of going nowhere, what do they have to lose by going from focusing on men to focusing on women. They tried being 'the minority network', and that still didn't provide them any movement.
Word from the Observer is that the WWF was nt consulted on the move to Friday nights. Friday and Saturday prime time slots are death knells. Vince should start asking USA if they'll take Smackdown in '06.
"You have to vote for one of us. It's a two party system. HAHAHAHAHA!" -- Kang and Kodos
Do you think it will affect the Canadian broadcast of the show on The Score? I'm sure given the choice, they'd rather keep it on Thursday rather than Friday, as Friday has more sporting events and they already air it an hour early on Thursday to help avoid going head to head with the major competition.
I just think it would be amusing to have Canada get Smackdown a whole day early, rather than just an hour early.
Well, after almost 10 years of Raw being aired in the UK on a Friday, I guess the Americans finally get a chance to feel our pain.
I wonder what this will do the scheduling on Sky TV, since I believe Smackdown moved to Fridays from Saturday after they started showing Raw live on Mondays. For some reason, I doubt WWE would be happy with having Smackdown air in the UK before it airs in the US, even if it is only by a few hours.
I'd be interested to see how this could impact PPV buys. Having your hard sell for a Sunday show on a Friday night seems a lot less beneficial than being able to have it on a Thursday night... at least currently they are able to get a good push in before the weekend begins.
I'm not certain that this is necessarily the end of the world. Wrestling has survived on Friday and Saturday nights in the past, hasn't it? I know we're in a different era now, but let's get some perspective here. These nights are "death knells" only compared to viewership earlier on in the week, but WWE programming even as recently as its attitude peak never approached Survivor, American Idol, or Apprentice numbers, so being on a night which would make getting ratings that high is pretty much irrelevant. That's not what they need to do.
Let's look at last Friday's ratings. *"Two hours of family talking about the Elvis they knew was enough to give CBS the edge on Friday night. The eye network won households with a 7.8/14, well ahead of ABC's 5.5/10. NBC came in third with a 4.9/9, followed by FOX's 2.4/4, UPN's 2.1/4 and The WB's 2.0/4."
WWE isn't expected to go anywehere near CBS, ABC, and NBC's numbers for the night, but if they retain a good eighty percent of their audience, which I think they will once everyone finds out when it's on, I think they can keep UPN in a solid fourth, ahead of either Fox or the WB or both on your average week. They have to hard-sell the move, and they have to book some serious friggin' angles that force their audience to tune in (or at least TiVo them). They need to make it a much, much stronger show for it to survive.
*source: tv.zap2it.com
Hot Virgins-The World's Most Steadily Shrinking Commodity
Originally posted by asteroidboyWow, I'd take Bernie Mac and Malcom any time over Smackdown. I had no idea those shows were relegated to Fridays, hope that isn't a bad omen.
After sending Malcolm to the death knell (7:30 on Sundays opposite 60 minutes) last season, I'm just ecstatic that Malcolm has survived for another year.
Smackdown on Friday sounds like a good deal to me. Shows that even show a hint of ratings success on that night or sometimes Saturday night tend to last a while.
Originally posted by ChumpstainDo you think it will affect the Canadian broadcast of the show on The Score? I'm sure given the choice, they'd rather keep it on Thursday rather than Friday, as Friday has more sporting events and they already air it an hour early on Thursday to help avoid going head to head with the major competition.
I just think it would be amusing to have Canada get Smackdown a whole day early, rather than just an hour early.
A little off topic, but I'm wondering...how about tapings? Will the WWE continue tapings on Tuesdays, or will they move them to Wednesday?
Exactly where I was going to head. Talk about taking words away from me to type. I think it's a good thing as long, as other have said in this post, they don't quietly drop it after a few months.