Source: wwe.com

The show that averages 3.1 million viewers on Friday nights and beats all Friday primetime viewing on any cable network is moving to Thursday nights on Syfy beginning January 15 at 8pm ET. With nearly 800 original episodes, SmackDown is the second longest-running weekly episodic program in U.S. television history, only behind WWE’s other flagship program, Monday Night Raw.


"WWE’s sizable and passionate fan base make SmackDown the No. 1 entertainment show on Syfy and the most-watched, regularly scheduled program among key demographics on the network," said Michelle Wilson, WWE Chief Revenue and Marketing Officer. "We look forward to bringing the WWE audience to Thursday nights on Syfy."

"Quite simply, more young men watch television on Thursday night than on Fridays,” said Michael Engleman, Executive Vice President, Marketing, Digital and Global Brand Strategy, Syfy. “Among Men 18-49, PUTS [persons using television] are 15 percent higher compared to Fridays, expanding the potential audience for SmackDown. Since the majority of broadcast programming skews female, we're also using Thursday nights to counter-program."


With a name made famous 15 years ago by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s popular catchphrase, SmackDown has been broadcast from 170 different venues, in 148 cities and towns, in seven different countries including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Iraq, Japan, Italy and Mexico.

Hooray!

i wonder what this means for NXT

cero2k wrote:i wonder what this means for NXT

Probably Wednesday nights, as soon as Smackdown moves. And I'd guess the same for Superstars, too.

Big Red Machine wrote:

cero2k wrote:i wonder what this means for NXT

Probably Wednesday nights, as soon as Smackdown moves. And I'd guess the same for Superstars, too.

that's gonna make wednesdays so interesting if TNA stays alive and Lucha Underground

The Observer just reported NXT moving to Wednesdays starting 1/15.

Big Red Machine wrote:The Observer just reported NXT moving to Wednesdays starting 1/15.

I wonder if one of the reasons for doing this is to take over the days that other companies have wrestling on. it just seemed like a big coincidence that LU debuts and WWE does go with the day change for smackdown after all and moving the 'smarky-favorite' shot to wednesdays

cero2k wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote:The Observer just reported NXT moving to Wednesdays starting 1/15.

I wonder if one of the reasons for doing this is to take over the days that other companies have wrestling on. it just seemed like a big coincidence that LU debuts and WWE does go with the day change for smackdown after all and moving the 'smarky-favorite' shot to wednesdays

I don't think that's it. Thursday is a much better night for TV ratings than Friday. That's the whole of it. They're not going after anyone. Especially not Lucha Underground. From what I understand, El Rey is in less hosueholds than ROH is.

Big Red Machine wrote:

cero2k wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote:The Observer just reported NXT moving to Wednesdays starting 1/15.

I wonder if one of the reasons for doing this is to take over the days that other companies have wrestling on. it just seemed like a big coincidence that LU debuts and WWE does go with the day change for smackdown after all and moving the 'smarky-favorite' shot to wednesdays

I don't think that's it. Thursday is a much better night for TV ratings than Friday. That's the whole of it. They're not going after anyone. Especially not Lucha Underground. From what I understand, El Rey is in less hosueholds than ROH is.

Yeah; Friday night is a night out. The only reason I stopped watching SD! was bc it moved to Fridays

Big Red Machine wrote:

cero2k wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote:The Observer just reported NXT moving to Wednesdays starting 1/15.

I wonder if one of the reasons for doing this is to take over the days that other companies have wrestling on. it just seemed like a big coincidence that LU debuts and WWE does go with the day change for smackdown after all and moving the 'smarky-favorite' shot to wednesdays

I don't think that's it. Thursday is a much better night for TV ratings than Friday. That's the whole of it. They're not going after anyone. Especially not Lucha Underground. From what I understand, El Rey is in less hosueholds than ROH is.

not sure, because UnoMas network is also broadcasting LU, just on saturdays and spanish. i think UnoMas is a wider distributed network

cero2k wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote:

cero2k wrote: I wonder if one of the reasons for doing this is to take over the days that other companies have wrestling on. it just seemed like a big coincidence that LU debuts and WWE does go with the day change for smackdown after all and moving the 'smarky-favorite' shot to wednesdays

I don't think that's it. Thursday is a much better night for TV ratings than Friday. That's the whole of it. They're not going after anyone. Especially not Lucha Underground. From what I understand, El Rey is in less hosueholds than ROH is.

not sure, because UnoMas network is also broadcasting LU, just on saturdays and spanish. i think UnoMas is a wider distributed network

I can't find numbers for either UniMas or El Rey, but Wikipeda says that Sinclair is in 30% of American households.