Took me twenty seconds to shake off the shock before I could reply... To paraphrase one of the Founding Fathers, "Now is the time for all good people to chip in and create a competitive network against this crap."
On Thu, May 13, 2010 at 9:44 PM, Keith Johnson <keithbjohn...@comcast.net>wrote: > > > Well, how much more does SyFy plan to get away from the scifi motif? They > claim it's a zero-sum gain, since one wrestling show is going away, to be > replaced by another, and since they claim Tuesday nights will generate > better viewership. But this is utter bullcrap. A two hour wrestling block on > Friday nights? I just don't get this... > > ******************************************************* > > http://www.multichannel.com/article/451611-Syfy_s_Wrestling_Upgrade_SmackDown_on_Fridays.php > Syfy’s Wrestling Upgrade: ‘SmackDown’ on Fridays By Thomas Umstead -- > Multichannel News, 4/19/2010 12:01:00 AM > *Syfy hopes to pin down young wrestling* fans on Friday nights with the > fall launch of World Wrestling Entertainment’s popular *Friday Night > SmackDown*, newly acquired by the NBC Universal outlet. > > Syfy will air the two-hour, weekly series — which migrates from broadcast > network MyNetworkTV — beginning Oct. 1, during the 8 to 10 p.m. slot on > Fridays that had been home to Syfy’s original series. > > To make room for *SmackDown*, Syfy will move original franchises such as > *Caprica > *and *Sanctuary*, which had aired on “Syfy Friday,” to Tuesday nights.Th > ey replace wrestling reality series WWE NXT, which will leave the network’s > schedule in October. > * > WWE NXT* — formerly *ECW *— has averaged 1.4 million viewers since > launching last month. *Friday Night SmackDown* averages more than 3.4 > million viewers a week on MyNetworkTV, making it the second most popular WWE > franchise behind USA Network’s *WWE Monday Night Raw*. > > “I think this is a fantastic opportunity to upgrade what we already have > and bring in a bigger WWE franchise — *SmackDown *being the second biggest > after *Raw*,” Syfy president Dave Howe said. “*SmackDown *attracts a > bigger, more family oriented audience, so it’s more helpful in terms of > cross-promotion with the rest of the schedule.” > > *ORIGINALS MOVE TO TUESDAY* > Howe said Tuesdays will provide greater exposure for those originals than > Fridays, typically a slower night in terms of television viewing. Freshman > original series* Warehouse 13*, for example, averaged a networkhigh 3.8 > million total viewers last summer on Tuesday nights. > > Howe hasn’t totally ruled out the possibility of launching a scripted > series in the Friday 10 p.m. time slot. > > “We still have Fridays at 10, so what we’re aiming to do is use *SmackDown > *as a springboard to launch new shows on Friday, or put in repeats of our > scripted shows so that we can continue to grow that *SmackDown *audience > across our schedule,” he said. > > WWE officials are said to be “currently in negotiations” with other > distributors regarding future carriage of *WWE NXT*. > > -- "If all the world's a stage and we are merely players, who the bloody hell wrote the script?" -- Charles E Grant http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUxw9aUVik
