Post by Shelyuki on May 19, 2005 20:28:34 GMT -5
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.
