Post by cenaroxorz123 on Feb 13, 2008 4:55:46 GMT -5
In a surprise to many, the CW announced last week that they were not going to renew Smackdown for another season, meaning the final show on the network will take place on September 12, 2008. WWE, after hearing that CW was informing its affiliates that the relationship was finished, tried to get a jump on things by sending out a press release attempting to downplay the news, basically claiming that the two sides had mutually agreed to go their separate ways. The reality was different, however, and most of the trade publications reported the story for what it really was, that being CW walking away after key points in the negotiations fell through on January 31st. It is believed the key point was price; CW was willing to keep the show if WWE was willing to take a cut in rights fees, but WWE was not.
WWE played hardball with Spike TV in 2005 as well, demanding equal or greater money to what they were getting when they signed the deal in 2000 (when ratings were significantly higher), and so Spike just stopped negotiating. WWE actually had very little leverage at that point but still managed to get a decent deal with USA, though not nearly as good as the deal they'd had with Spike. In fact, the jump resulted in them losing $20 million per year in ad revenue since USA took over the ad sales. In hindsight, the jump was actually, as we'd expected at the time, a turning point in the history of the business. While TNA has hardly lit the world on fire, WWE's departure did open the door to Spike picking them up and giving them what is today a two-hour prime time slot on Thursday nights. If they'd had a booking committee with a clue for the past few years they could very well have been a force by this point. Vince McMahon, in a surprise to some, had given Spike the OK to put Ultimate Fighter on the air (he had a no-competition clause in his contract with Spike that would have given him the ability to ixnay UFC programming, but for whatever reason ("totally different audience"), he gave them the OK and the rest is history), and WWE leaving opened up the door to Spike TV pretty much building the entire network around UFC. Today, if any sports entertainment company in the country could be considered number two, it's undoubtedly UFC.
This had actually been in the works for a long time. Smackdown viewership is very good for the CW, often in the five million range, even though Smackdown usually ranks last in the time slot among the major networks on Friday night. Largely, and I've never really understood this, the concern was that Smackdown didn't fit into the image of the network. I have no idea what a network's image has to do with anything, or why the image is important to the people in charge, or why viewers of a specific program or programs would care what else is airing on a network. I can understand very specific networks, like the Food Channel, being concerned about airing a program that has nothing to do with food. There was, of course, a huge uproar when ECW was signed to the Sci-Fi Network, and in fact one of the early requests by Sci-Fi was that WWE use some more outlandish characters, including the Zombie and the Vampire. But for a general programming network like the CW, why pro-wrestling in unacceptable on a Friday night I've got no idea. WWE always had a good relationship with them and the cost vs. benefit for the show was among the most profitable for the network. They are, however, targeted at young women, which Smackdown is not. The CW also noted that they felt the wrestling fans who showed up and watched Smackdown didn't sample other shows on the network at other points during the day or week. This is how it always is with pro-wrestling, and my guess is that for most of the major general networks (ABC, NBC, Fox) it's like that for other programming.
Smackdown has broadcast 442 episodes since its debut in 1999 on what was then the UPN Network. To be fair, a nine year run is actually a hell of a long time on network TV, and it's pretty impressive for any show to remain at the five million viewers mark after so many years (they've really only lost an average of 2.5 million viewers or so since the boom period of the late 90s). Jim Ross broadcast the first episode of the show, which was a spinoff from Raw during the boom period and named after one of Rock's catchphrases ("The Rock's Show," he called it). At the time, Rock was among the biggest stars in the company, and how interesting it is that nine years later he's long gone and a bona-fide movie star to the point where many of the young kids who went to Game Plan never even knew he was a wrestler to begin with.
In September of 2005 the show moved from its original Thursday night home to Friday nights, where it has remained ever since. It actually does better numbers for CW on Friday than it did on Thursday as compared to other programming, and the programming that replaced it on Thursdays ("Everybody Hates Chris") did better numbers than Smackdown was doing in the slot. It was a win-win for all sides.
WWE announced that they were already shopping around for a new network home, which of course means that they did not have a new network home when this announcement was made. One would think that some network somewhere would be willing to pick it up with the guaranteed 4.5 to 5 million viewers they'd get per week. Their contract with NBC/Universal states that they would have to remain in that family on cable (no TBS or TNT), though on network TV they can go anywhere they want. Right now it is believed the frontrunner is MyNetworkTV, former home of the IFL, which nobody in the world watches but which is available in over 100 million homes nationwide. They desperately need a show that will boost their overall ratings. Of course, my first concern would be whether they'd be able to stay in business for any length of time after signing the show. They've been teetering on the edge of extinction for a long time now, and they might not have the funds to give WWE anything close to the kind of deal they were getting on UPN (around $500,000 per episode). They certainly weren't giving IFL anything close to that ($50,000 per first-run show), and IFL was losing huge money with each taping. I should also note that after going to all that expense to get the company ready to switch ($20 million), MyNetworkTV does not currently broadcast in HD.
The chances of Smackdown ending up on NBC seem very slim. NBC didn't even offer WWE a single Saturday Night's Main Event during the Hollywood writer's strike, and if ever there was a time for them to grab some first-run live programming, this was it. Bravo is under the umbrella and may be a long-shot, although the Divas did appear on Project Runway this week and the show did a shockingly huge 3.0 rating, so I wouldn't totally rule it out. USA Network on Friday nights is also a possibility, though my gut tells me the possibility is slim.
F4W
WWE played hardball with Spike TV in 2005 as well, demanding equal or greater money to what they were getting when they signed the deal in 2000 (when ratings were significantly higher), and so Spike just stopped negotiating. WWE actually had very little leverage at that point but still managed to get a decent deal with USA, though not nearly as good as the deal they'd had with Spike. In fact, the jump resulted in them losing $20 million per year in ad revenue since USA took over the ad sales. In hindsight, the jump was actually, as we'd expected at the time, a turning point in the history of the business. While TNA has hardly lit the world on fire, WWE's departure did open the door to Spike picking them up and giving them what is today a two-hour prime time slot on Thursday nights. If they'd had a booking committee with a clue for the past few years they could very well have been a force by this point. Vince McMahon, in a surprise to some, had given Spike the OK to put Ultimate Fighter on the air (he had a no-competition clause in his contract with Spike that would have given him the ability to ixnay UFC programming, but for whatever reason ("totally different audience"), he gave them the OK and the rest is history), and WWE leaving opened up the door to Spike TV pretty much building the entire network around UFC. Today, if any sports entertainment company in the country could be considered number two, it's undoubtedly UFC.
This had actually been in the works for a long time. Smackdown viewership is very good for the CW, often in the five million range, even though Smackdown usually ranks last in the time slot among the major networks on Friday night. Largely, and I've never really understood this, the concern was that Smackdown didn't fit into the image of the network. I have no idea what a network's image has to do with anything, or why the image is important to the people in charge, or why viewers of a specific program or programs would care what else is airing on a network. I can understand very specific networks, like the Food Channel, being concerned about airing a program that has nothing to do with food. There was, of course, a huge uproar when ECW was signed to the Sci-Fi Network, and in fact one of the early requests by Sci-Fi was that WWE use some more outlandish characters, including the Zombie and the Vampire. But for a general programming network like the CW, why pro-wrestling in unacceptable on a Friday night I've got no idea. WWE always had a good relationship with them and the cost vs. benefit for the show was among the most profitable for the network. They are, however, targeted at young women, which Smackdown is not. The CW also noted that they felt the wrestling fans who showed up and watched Smackdown didn't sample other shows on the network at other points during the day or week. This is how it always is with pro-wrestling, and my guess is that for most of the major general networks (ABC, NBC, Fox) it's like that for other programming.
Smackdown has broadcast 442 episodes since its debut in 1999 on what was then the UPN Network. To be fair, a nine year run is actually a hell of a long time on network TV, and it's pretty impressive for any show to remain at the five million viewers mark after so many years (they've really only lost an average of 2.5 million viewers or so since the boom period of the late 90s). Jim Ross broadcast the first episode of the show, which was a spinoff from Raw during the boom period and named after one of Rock's catchphrases ("The Rock's Show," he called it). At the time, Rock was among the biggest stars in the company, and how interesting it is that nine years later he's long gone and a bona-fide movie star to the point where many of the young kids who went to Game Plan never even knew he was a wrestler to begin with.
In September of 2005 the show moved from its original Thursday night home to Friday nights, where it has remained ever since. It actually does better numbers for CW on Friday than it did on Thursday as compared to other programming, and the programming that replaced it on Thursdays ("Everybody Hates Chris") did better numbers than Smackdown was doing in the slot. It was a win-win for all sides.
WWE announced that they were already shopping around for a new network home, which of course means that they did not have a new network home when this announcement was made. One would think that some network somewhere would be willing to pick it up with the guaranteed 4.5 to 5 million viewers they'd get per week. Their contract with NBC/Universal states that they would have to remain in that family on cable (no TBS or TNT), though on network TV they can go anywhere they want. Right now it is believed the frontrunner is MyNetworkTV, former home of the IFL, which nobody in the world watches but which is available in over 100 million homes nationwide. They desperately need a show that will boost their overall ratings. Of course, my first concern would be whether they'd be able to stay in business for any length of time after signing the show. They've been teetering on the edge of extinction for a long time now, and they might not have the funds to give WWE anything close to the kind of deal they were getting on UPN (around $500,000 per episode). They certainly weren't giving IFL anything close to that ($50,000 per first-run show), and IFL was losing huge money with each taping. I should also note that after going to all that expense to get the company ready to switch ($20 million), MyNetworkTV does not currently broadcast in HD.
The chances of Smackdown ending up on NBC seem very slim. NBC didn't even offer WWE a single Saturday Night's Main Event during the Hollywood writer's strike, and if ever there was a time for them to grab some first-run live programming, this was it. Bravo is under the umbrella and may be a long-shot, although the Divas did appear on Project Runway this week and the show did a shockingly huge 3.0 rating, so I wouldn't totally rule it out. USA Network on Friday nights is also a possibility, though my gut tells me the possibility is slim.
F4W