According to the Los Angeles Times, WWE Smackdown will be moving from MyNetwork TV to Syfy in the fall. An official announcement is expected to be made later this week. Although the exact numbers are unknown it is thought that Syfy might be offering up to 50% more per year for the program. It is expected to continue airing the program on Friday nights. At present, Syfy is in 13 million fewer homes than MyNetwork. This means an automatic viewership decrease of about 12%. Syfy is another NBC-Universal channel and it is thought that this deal may be motivated by WWE’s desires to start its own cable network in 2011. Vince McMahon has close relationships with several prominent NBC-Universal executives, in particular head of sports programming Dick Ebersol, and may be seeking a partnership with them in this prospective new venture.
WWE Smackdown began airing on Thursday nights on UPN in 1999, averaging 7 million viewers per week. By 2005 the audience had declined to around 5 million and it was moved to Friday nights. In 2006 it became a part of the new CW network with around 4.5 million viewers. In 2008 it became a part of MyNetwork TV, which has since become a syndicated programming service rather than an actual television network. It is currently estimated to have about 3.5 million viewers.
