Necro

Things aren't going to be getting better for WWE SmackDown anytime soon as the show has been dealt yet another major blow once it moves to its Friday night timeslot this September. It has been announced that the show will be preempted for much of the MLB season from its regular timeslot in the New York City market on UPN affiliate WWOR channel 9 due to the showing of Yankees baseball.

The Yankees signed a deal with FOX to distribute the team’s games this past January on UPN channel 9 which is owned and operated by FOX.

This could be devastating for the show because not only will it have to deal with being moved into a new much weaker timeslot, but will have to deal with being bounced out of its regular timeslot in one of the biggest markets in the country for much if not all of next year’s MLB season.

[Source] wrestling-edge.com

Mr. Kennedy

Don't the Yankees already show their games on the YES Network?
Considering SmackDown already is getting low ratings this move to friday and being pre-empted by Yankees games in NYC is gonna be a severe blow. More reason for WWE to do whatever they can to get SD off of UPN.

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Blitzkrieg

WC Hall Of Famer

Yeah, most Yankee games are on YES, but they show Yankee games on Friday nights on local TV.

Man, SD! is fuckin' dead...

Lou

Maybe they should move Smackdown to cable for a year or two, and make it live...

Joseph T. Cool

WC HOF'er

I would say this is a clear signal that it is time the brand extension comes to an end.

With Smackdown being preempted a lot, the ratings will go down the crapper even more.

But again this is just my opinion.

Mr. Kennedy

Recombining the rosters won't help much since SmackDown will still be on friday nights which is bad for ratings and be pre-empted in some markets by sports games. The same thing happened to Star Trek:Enterprise when it was moved to that slot. What the WWE needs to do is get SD off of UPN as soon as possible, SD did just fine 2 years ago so I don't think the brand extension is the problem.

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