SmackDown! Pops A Rating For Tuesday. Any Lessons To Be Learned?

[Jack-Hammer]

As of right now, according to headlineplanet.com, Tuesday's special live episode of SmackDown! scored a 2.5 Nielsen Rating. The viewership numbers and demo ratings aren't out yet but it's easily safe to say that the show had well over 3 million viewers.

Vince has been wanting SD! to break the 2.0 rating and 3 million viewership mark since the show debuted on Syfy but it's fallen just a little short. It's come close to that a few times but hasn't quite made it. So is there anything that should be taken from the show this past Tuesday that could potentially generate these sort of numbers on a consistent basis?

I think that Tuesday's show had a few things going for it that might potentially help SD! keep up these numbers. Whether they'll happen or not is a different story. For one thing, this was first airing of SmackDown! live on the USA Network. Both Syfy & USA are under the control of NBC-Universal but USA is a far more prominent network than Syfy and is USA is often the most watched cable network each week. I don't know if the brass at NBC-Universal would be open to, or even could at this point, move SD! to the USA Network on a permanent basis. If they could, however, I do think that there's a good possibility that the shows numbers will be where Vince wants them. A few other things that I'd say helped the show was that USA had done a great job of hyping and promoting WWE Week on the network and SD! in general. I think that another big factor was that the show didn't air on a Friday night. More people go out on Friday night than any other night of the week. Huge numbers of people have worked all week and when Friday night comes along, they see their first real chance to just get out of the house and not have to worry about getting up early the next morning. I know that John Cena was on this show Tuesday but he also made a live appearance on the Syfy debut of SD! and the show still didn't garner the type of ratings Vince was hoping for.

Do you suppose any of this could've affected the rating? Was it just a one time fluke due to the show being live on USA? Could a permanent move from Syfy to USA make a difference? Could moving SD! to another night possibly help?

 

[The Black Death]

I think it was the combination of being on a bigger network, being live, airing on tuesday instead of friday and having big stars like john cena, randy orton and the miz appear. And I do think a permanent move from friday on syfy to usa on tuesday's would help ratings alot.

 

[LSN80]

I think a couple of factors came into play here that caused such a spike in ratings.

Promotion: WWE promoted the hell out of the episode. They began airing vignettes plugging the special airing of Smackdown on Raw the week before. The viewers had a chance to prepare for a special Smackdown, as they werent plugging the show this hard even before its move to SyFy.

USA Network: This may be the single biggest reason why. While SyFy and USA are both sister companies of the NBC parenthood, SyFy is hardly in the same market of being watched then SyFy is. USA generates a lot of original programming such as Psych, Burn Notice, and Raw, amongst others. The fact that the show was given a primetime spot on a network thats available to all cable outlets certainly helped. Many people in my area dont even get SyFy, so getting on the bigger USA network that generates more original and well known programming certainly played a factor.

Stars: The Miz may have appeared the week before, but it was against Smackdown's Rey Mysterio. Miz faced Randy Orton in a non-title match that was a rematch from the Sunday's PPV. It was really their first one on one match with Miz as champion without a gimmick, and that advertising alone likely made alot of people tune in just to see Miz get his, even in a non-title match. They gave away a PPV match on free TV.

John Cena got his start on Smackdown, and his return to face the biggest heat magnet in the WWE in Vickie Guerrero certainly spiked the ratings, Im sure. Cena is a draw and everywhere he goes, or when he returns, he brings ratings with him. Alot of people likely tuned in to see the biggest draw in professional wrestling today, and to see Vickie Guerrero, and Dolph Ziggler by association, get theirs.

All of these were likely large factors that played into the ratings spike. The fact that the promoted the show heavily as part of "WWE week" on USA, the fact that it was aired on the larger vehicle that is USA, and the cross promotion using Raw's biggest stars in desirable matchups were all likely the combination that spiked the ratings.

 

[Pay Per Ghost]

Great news.

Above expectations but I think it was due to the influx of Raw stars as well. As LSN mentioned the biggest heel in Vickie and the biggest face is Cena both were there. Perhaps this adds more fuel to the 'end the roster' debate.
But for the while they need another big face on SD. Edge is good, Mysterio is ok but I'm talking Cena/Orton material.

 

[Arkham Noir]

Above expectations but I think it was due to the influx of Raw stars as well. As LSN mentioned the biggest heel in Vickie and the biggest face is Cena both were there. Perhaps this adds more fuel to the 'end the roster' debate.

That's the most valid example anyone has given in regards to the roster split.

Anyways, there was alot more effort and star power put into this show than a regular Smackdown. No matter what anyone says, friday night isn't a T.V. night for most people, and I don't think SyFy is a well known channel for the average viewer. The combination of different time and place (so to speak) probably had the most prominent affect on the good ratings.

I think the overall message to take away is just straight up quality shows. They have only been on SyFy for two months, so I doubt they are going to be switching time-slots or networks anytime soon. If they can get Miz bigger on RAW and get another big face , than maybe putting Cena on Smackdown would help. But I doubt Cena is going to leave RAW anytime soon.

 

[Ultra Awesome]

I pretty much agree with everything Jack-Hammer said. The key factor that made Smackdown get such a huge rating was because it was on USA--not Syfy. While, sure, Syfy does have a decent amount of promotion as well as attention; it does not, however, compare to the likes of USA. USA has always been a far more known and promotional network than Syfy could ever hope to achieve.

Another factor that contributed to the high rating is the fact that Smackdown was on a Tuesday and not on a Firday. Think about it. There aren't that many people that are home on Friday night. The majority of the people are usually out partying or having fun. Thus, it hurts the numbers a considerable amount.

I believe the two above were the main factors in contributing to Smackdown getting such a igh rating. Sure, the star power helped out a bit too; but the fact that it recieved so much promotion from USA and that it was on USA on a Tuesday greatly affected the outcome of the ratings.

In the end, I see the main problem with Smackdown (in terms of ratings) is that it is on Fridays. Maybe if Smackdown were to change to another night, then they'd get better ratings. What could alos help is if Smackdown moved to USA; but they're under contract for about two years, I believe, so I doubt it'll happen soon.

 

[Marky-Marc]

I think moving to Sy-Fy was a bad idea. Ratings are down and haven't been good since their debut back in October. If they could switch to USA, I think it would do wonders for both Smackdown and Raw. The people who don't watch Raw because they say the wrestling sucks would get a promo for Raw at every commercial break.

The upcoming "Road to Wrestlemania" could help the numbers in the short run and then soon after is usually the draft and I think they need to move a big name, maybe even two, I'm thinking Orton could switch and maybe even Daniel Bryan. Not to mention it's been rumored that Nexus will be split up via the draft so if their take over could switch to the Blue Brand then maybe they could draw more viewers.


I think the live broadcast showed a few things:

1. Smackdown should be live. Not sure why it isn't but people reading spoilers will lessen the number that are actually excited to sit down and watch it.

2. They don't have enough star power. It usually draws a good number when Raw stars are advertised heasvily as being in the show.

3. Being on a Friday night is not good. As someone mentioned earlier, a lot of people go out on Friday nights, not normally a TV night. I honestly think they should move back to Thursday, go head to head with TNA and I think their ratings would improve, also weakening Impact's rating at the same time.

 

[bloodhawk10]

If WWE wants SD! ratings to stay like this, they should do the following (my opinion only):

1. Expand the roster

SD needs a lot more star power. Having Cena and Orton on the show is huge, they're arguably the two biggest superstars on Raw and in the company itself. I think Punk and HHH could both work well in SD if drafted.

2. Definitely move to Tuesday nights.

There's a thing called "the Friday night death slot" for shows being played on Friday nights. Most adults have something better to do to start the weekend, teenagers are probably partying somewhere, and some kids will be at some kind of birthday party for a kid in their grade. Those other little kids that had nothing better to do and are staying home are either playing Xbox or watching TV. Usually, one a show was put in the Friday night death slot, it turned out to be the last season for that show. Now, WWE has the money to keep SD alive, so that's not going to happen anytime in the near future. But Tuesday nights are a lot better. People come home, they do their homework/other work, eat, and they just want to relax. They turn on the TV and SD is on. Lots of more viewers right there.

3. Don't tape it.

OK, this probably would only affect viewership among teenagers/adults, because the only reason younger kids go on the computer is to play a game. No spoilers = more people on their toes waiting for what will happen next = higher ratings