Black Widow
02-08-2008, 10:02 PM
Credit: PWInsider
At the end of the current TV season (later this year) Smackdown's run on The CW (formerly UPN network) will come to an end as the sides have broken off talks on negotiation of a new contract. This does not surprise me at all. The brass at UPN, and now CW, has been looking to distance itself from wrestling for some time now. A few years ago, despite drawing excellent ratings on Thursday evenings, the show was moved to Friday nights and was announced at the networks annual upfront presentation. There is debate as to whether WWE found out when the new schedule was announced or whether they got a courtesy call a day in advance, but either way, the message as to how the network felt about carrying wrestling was clear.
When UPN merged with The WB to become CW, there was a lot of talk as to whether they would continue to air wrestling on the new network. They chose to keep the show because it delivered dependable ratings and they didn't have anything else to replace it with on Friday night, which is the second least watched evening of the week in the TV world, but it was well known that they weren't enamored with having something that they considered so sophomoric on the network. For the last few years, WWE's status on the network was tenuous at best and now they are gone, and my understanding is that it was not what WWE wanted.
The early money is being bet that they will end up on MyNetworkTV but that is hardly set in stone at this time.
At the end of the current TV season (later this year) Smackdown's run on The CW (formerly UPN network) will come to an end as the sides have broken off talks on negotiation of a new contract. This does not surprise me at all. The brass at UPN, and now CW, has been looking to distance itself from wrestling for some time now. A few years ago, despite drawing excellent ratings on Thursday evenings, the show was moved to Friday nights and was announced at the networks annual upfront presentation. There is debate as to whether WWE found out when the new schedule was announced or whether they got a courtesy call a day in advance, but either way, the message as to how the network felt about carrying wrestling was clear.
When UPN merged with The WB to become CW, there was a lot of talk as to whether they would continue to air wrestling on the new network. They chose to keep the show because it delivered dependable ratings and they didn't have anything else to replace it with on Friday night, which is the second least watched evening of the week in the TV world, but it was well known that they weren't enamored with having something that they considered so sophomoric on the network. For the last few years, WWE's status on the network was tenuous at best and now they are gone, and my understanding is that it was not what WWE wanted.
The early money is being bet that they will end up on MyNetworkTV but that is hardly set in stone at this time.