UPN Sucks: SmackDown! moved to Fridays WTF

In a move that may be a sign that UPN will not renew Smackdown after its contract expires in the fall of 2006, the network announced at their upfront presentation today that Smackdown will be moving to Friday night, in the 8 to 10 timeslot, starting in the fall season. Friday night is one of the two traditionally worst drawing nights of the week for TV shows (Saturday is the worst). When you consider that WWE reaches younger viewers and that many of them go out on Friday nights, that probably means that Smackdown will do a lower rating on its new night. I just spoke with a highly placed source in the company who told me that WWE management did not want the show to move from Thursday nights but given that they only have a year left on their contract, and recently moved their cable programming from Spike TV, UPN's sister company, to USA, it's not like WWE could do anything about it. At this time, it's not known if USA would take on Smackdown when its contract with UPN expires next year.


UPN is full of morons.

BRING BACK THE OLD SCHOOL SUNDAY NIGHT HEAT!!!

Remember the good ole days of Raw is War/Warzone, Sunday Night HeAT, Monday Nitro, Thunder, and ECW's Friday Night show (2am).

When I was like 10 I used to hype myself up on sugar all day long until Nitro came on and then I pretty much lost it. I'd always have to be home as soon as it started, no matter where we were. I remember one year on vacation I stayed home while everybody else was out to dinner to watch it. :laugh:

Looks like SD! might get canned soon in some major markets...

"We reported yesterday the major conflicts that WWE SmackDown! will encounter with the airing of MLB baseball, causing preemptions in the New York market. This does not appear to be the only problem as in addition to the Yankees, The Boston Red Sox, The Washington Nationals, The Philadelphia Phillies, The Los Angeles Dodgers, The Minnesota Twins, The Seattle Mariners, and The Colorado Rockies all have television deals with their local UPN channel to carry their games on Friday evenings.

More importantly, UPN 9 in the New York market is in its first year of a three year deal with the Yankees to broadcast 20-25 games per year, although Friday is not a stipulation in the contract meaning that it could be changed.

Apparently UPN and the Yankees agreed on Friday so that the games did not interfere with SmackDown, which means that UPN possibly put SmackDown in a position where it can be preempted.

SmackDown does not appear to be as top of a priority as it used to be to UPN executives given Viacom's Leslie Moonves comments that the program would be cancelled, later clarified that it "could be cancelled." WWE's deal with UPN to air SmackDown expires in September 2006. It should also be noted that WWE was not given advance notice by UPN of plans to change the show's timeslot before Thursday's upfront presentation by the network."

credit wrestlezone

I wouldn't be shocked if it got canned.

If I were Vince I'd be pretty pissed that all these networks are showing such disrespect. It's fucking pathetic.

Why can't they just sell it to Spike?

Spike is DONE with Raw aswell. Raw is going to either USA Network again or another station.

I'm telling ya' man the WWE is getting a big black cock in it's ass this year. It's fucking disturbing.

That's what they get for consolidating my WCW!

Wheel Chair Wrestling?