Report: Speculation On The Blue Brand Going Live

[Jack-Hammer]

According to various reports, NBC Universal and WWE are expected to announce a new TV deal at just about anytime. There's speculation that it could happen today or tonight as there's some sort of big conference happening at NBC. According to the reports, there's talk of SmackDown! going live on Tuesdays as part of the deal due, in part, because it's expected that the new deal will include a substantial increase in TV rights fees for WWE. Jim Ross himself, though he's no longer with the company, believes this will happen as well, saying as much on Twitter:

"If nbc/universal keeps @WWE programming w/ a significant right fee increase, I'm guessing Smackdown goes LIVE on Tuesdays on SyFy."

On these boards, a good number of people have wanted to see SmackDown! go live on a permanent basis for quite some time. The primary reason why it hasn't already is because, with only one exception if I remember correctly, the regular airings of the taped episodes on Friday nights outdrew all of the Super SmackDown! Live specials that aired on Tuesdays. If the show does wind up going live on Tuesday nights, the ratings for the show might not be all that top notch for a little while. Then again, I suppose it's possible that one reason that the live specials didn't outdraw the taped shows was due to fans knowing that the episode would be replayed on Friday and that the show wasn't gonna be filmed live anytime soon. With fans discovering it'd be shown live permanently, maybe that would deliver different results.

 

[MCMG]

This should happen and would be great for the product. If it's live TV it absolutely forces them to improve the quality of the show which can only be a good thing. If they commit some of the big names (Cena mainly) then people will actually watch the show and they can use it to enhance storylines/feuds.

 

[Dan Severn's Moustache]

I'm not a fan of the idea personally, as I've expressed in other threads.

Condensing the major shows together at the start of the week is just counter-productive, and it's going to usually mean a six day wait for another major show, unless there's a PPV which makes it five, which isn't much better. WWE would be much better off spreading their major programming out in order to focus on gaining substantial viewing for the rest of the week. There's still Main Event and Superstars (the former is also aired live on the Network, which is kind of counter-productive also seeing as the show is a bigger deal than it initially was) but Superstars doesn't get nearly the same amount of views the main programming does.

Tuesday just isn't as ideal to air a initial show in WWE's current schedule. There's no way they're changing the Raw timeslot or changing the live airing day of Smackdown, so compacting the viewing content together would give most fans no reason to keep watching WWE programming until the next Monday/Sunday.

It's honestly fine being taped. The thing that needs to be fixed with Smackdown is the content, not the timeslot.

 

[Reflection]

Jim Ross is about as out-of-touch with the business and how things work as Justin LaBar. I strongly believe that the WWE won't walk that road. It will simply create an overdose of wrestling with 3 hours of RAW just the previous night, and 3 more hours of wrestling the night before (once a month).. Because of this overdose, many people will think "ah fuck this, I watched wrestling only yesterday. let's watch something else tonight." and the ratings will go further down. Whereas if Smackdown stays on Friday, the hunger for wrestling grows again through the weekdays and people tend to watch 2 more hours of wrestling.
Thus, Friday > Tuesday.
Now comes the question that what if they go live on Friday? Answer is that this too won't happen, because the days off are used by the talent to spend time with their families and heal up their injuries throughout the week, before returning to action again on Monday. Live Friday night Smackdown will only force many wrestlers to work without recovering properly from their injuries, and it will only make things worse in the long run.
Thus, Taped Smackdown > Live Smackdown
So in conclusion, neither of the two rumors is gonna come true.

 

[JoeFromTomsRiver]

J
Now comes the question that what if they go live on Friday? Answer is that this too won't happen, because the days off are used by the talent to spend time with their families and heal up their injuries throughout the week, before returning to action again on Monday. Live Friday night Smackdown will only force many wrestlers to work without recovering properly from their injuries, and it will only make things worse in the long run.
Thus, Taped Smackdown > Live Smackdown
So in conclusion, neither of the two rumors is gonna come true.

You left house shows out of the equation and a live SD on Friday wouldn't affect their time off.

The way it works now is:

Saturday: House Show
Sunday: House Show or PPV
Monday: Live RAW
Tuesday Smackdown Taping
Wed, Thurs, Fri : OFF

If they switched to a live Smackdown on Fridays it would be:

Friday: Live Smackdown
Saturday: House Show
Sunday: House Show or PPV
Monday: Live RAW
Tues, Wed, Thurs: OFF

So the amount of days of work vs. days off would be identical.

 

[Dan Severn's Moustache]

You left house shows out of the equation and a live SD on Friday wouldn't affect their time off.

The way it works now is:

Saturday: House Show
Sunday: House Show or PPV
Monday: Live RAW
Tuesday Smackdown Taping
Wed, Thurs, Fri : OFF

If they switched to a live Smackdown on Fridays it would be:

Friday: Live Smackdown
Saturday: House Show
Sunday: House Show or PPV
Monday: Live RAW
Tues, Wed, Thurs: OFF

So the amount of days of work vs. days off would be identical.

Not every week is a house show, so he's perfectly right. WWE only tend to run a set of house shows about once every month, which would make the timetable for the talent all over the place.

It's not viable to film the show live once every month on average. It would be far too inconsistent.

 

[MattRhys20]

I don't understand why they didn't go to live Tuesdays sooner. There is NOTHING to compete with on Tuesday nights. No NFL (Thursday Night Football), no people going out and celebrating the weekends on Friday nights. No (major) competition = more viewers

 

[SoulTrain4]

I'm of the opinion that it doesn't matter whether the show is live or taped as people will either watch it or not regardless, the main problem is making the show "must see" which to be honest is probably a problem of it being taped as spoilers turn off potential viewers so from a business standpoint it may make more sense to have it live but not on Tuesdays.

Why not put SD on Thursdays at 7 or 8 (preferably 7) so it could avoid NBA and NFL games that happen on Thursdays. Wednesdays are also a good idea they can move Main Event to Fridays or Saturdays.

 

[Dan Severn's Moustache]

http://www.wwe.com/inside/nbcuniversal-cable-entertainment-reaches-multi-year-deal-with-wwe-26309571

The deal with NBC Universal has been made. The timetable overhaul will be probably be announced in due time.

I'm still against this move. To add on to my previous post with some other opinions I've seen, despite the fact that Tuesday doesn't have much major programming going on, at least in America, it still feels as if WWE are wasting their television time early in the week as opposed to spreading it out to allow a modest pace. It's too chaotic for my taste.

 

[Harthan]

I'd be super excited for this. I'm absolutely one of those people who just reads SD spoilers and then never watches it, even when I hear there's a good match there. I haven't tuned into SyFy for SD in a long, long time, if I'm being honest. The last time I did, as a matter of fact, was the last time it was live - not a coincidence, I promise. I'd be intensely more likely to start watching SD if it were live, and I'd be willing to bet a live broadcast would be of higher quality than the taped one is.

I'd also be okay with it being on on a Tuesday instead of Friday. I am almost always doing something else on Friday evenings, but Tuesday? I'm usually just home. It'd be way more fun to be able to watch SD.

 

[mral82]

You left house shows out of the equation and a live SD on Friday wouldn't affect their time off.

The way it works now is:

Saturday: House Show
Sunday: House Show or PPV
Monday: Live RAW
Tuesday Smackdown Taping
Wed, Thurs, Fri : OFF

If they switched to a live Smackdown on Fridays it would be:

Friday: Live Smackdown
Saturday: House Show
Sunday: House Show or PPV
Monday: Live RAW
Tues, Wed, Thurs: OFF

So the amount of days of work vs. days off would be identical.

Actually if they Had Smackdown! Live! on Fridays as they wouldn't be changing when they on the ROAD as this is how the current scheldule is not yours:
Friday and Saturdays: House Show
Sunday: House Show or PPV
Monday: Live RAW
Tuesday: Smackdown Taping
Wednesdays and Thursdays: OFF/or doing Promo Work for the company

This is how it shoulda been always:
Friday: Live! Smackdown/Superstars taped here onat random house shows
Saturday: House Show
Sunday: House Show or PPV
Monday: Live! RAW/Main Event could be tape here
Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays: OFF/or doing Promo Work for the company

So my way shoulda been how they did from at least 2006 or before as this would be best for biznizz.