Will Smackdown ever go live permanently?

[babinko]

As many other posters can agree, Smackdown is just unwatchable from time to time. We sort of ruin the show by taking a quick peek at the spoilers. Sometimes the show looks awesome but just won't bother watching because we know its a taped show. Factors like production cost go into play on why the show is not Live every week. Yet, if the show were to go live, do you think viewership would go up? I know if it was live every week I would catch myself watching it, even on a friday night. Hell, if WWE wanted, they could have up to 4 live tv shows a week! 5 if you include NXT!

This is how I would break it down based on WWE events:

Sunday - House Show / PPV "Special Event" (Once a month)
Monday - RAW LIVE
Tuesday - House Show / Main Event LIVE
Wednesday - OFF
Thursday - OFF
Friday - SMACKDOWN LIVE
Saturday - House Show

On Tuesday, the WWE Network can still show Main Event Live but it should be held in a smaller venue and same goes for Smackdown. Both venues should be 10k or less. My feeling is if Smackdown was live on Fridays, ticket sales might be good. Maybe WWE should change the way Smackdown looks and not put too much money towards production cost.

Do you think WWE can manage putting Smackdown live permanently? How would it play out; will the ratings go higher? Will you watch? General thoughts on the schedule above?

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Smackdown is 15 years old. If it was ever going to go live permanently it would've by now.

I'm not sure how well it does when it comes to ratings. I've no interest in how many other people are watching the show. But if it isn't doing well then they wouldn't be wasting their time giving it an upgrade. New logo, arena set up etc.

 

[Dan Severn's Moustache]

No. And it never will do.

There's a reason why Smackdown would always do Live Tuesday Specials far more regularly than Live Friday Specials, and that's simply due to convenience reasons. With Raw and Superstars filmed on Monday, and Main Event and Smackdown on Tuesday, this gives the talent the rest of the week to devote some time to refuel at their homes or continue on the road if they happen to be doing live events at the time. They would never have it air live on Fridays because the schedule would be ruined.

And they won't be switching Smackdown to Tuesdays solely to have it a live show, because it would be a poor idea to condense main WWE programming as close together as can be.

 

[Dagger Dias]

No. Smackdown will never go live permanently. In order for it to go live then one of two things would have to happen. The first being they would have to move all of the tapings to fridays when it has been on tuesdays for years, thus eliminating a format that has worked for WWE for a very long time. The second being they would have to turn Friday Night Smackdown into Tuesday Night Smackdown. I do not see either one of these things happening. Both of those options involve a lot of unneccessary work that honestly wouldn't bring in a drastic increase in viewers. A small one perhaps, but Smackdown's numbers are never going to touch Raw's. There's really nothing that can change that at this time. Going live permanently certainly won't, at least not to the extent that some may be hoping for, and not enough to make it worth it for WWE to change up their format in such a large way.

If it turned into a weekly tuesday show, sure we would not have to worry about spoilers floating around all week until it finally airs, but it is nice to have a few days in between the two biggest shows on WWE's schedule. You have PPV's on roughly one sunday per month, then Raw the following monday, then you'd have Smackdown on tuesday if it went live in the current taping format. Even the biggest fans would risk getting burnt out. As for them changing their tapings to fridays? Not going to happen. The current format is fine, people need to just learn to avoid spoilers until the show airs. It's not that hard and it makes it more enjoyable to watch it at the end of the week, without it being spoiled.

 

[Steve-O-Matt]

Na'h, ain't gonna happen in my opinion. The most likely time for it going live would've been during the Ruthless Aggression Era, where the show was at it's peak! Now days it serves as a Raw replay show with a view midcard feuds stablised in the mean time. Saying that, "Smackdown is Shield" was one of the best Smackdowns I've seen in a LONG, LONG TIME! Why can't it be more like that every week, something as a launchpad for the young guys who are progressing quick, through the upper midcard as The Shield, Cesaro, Barrett, Sheamus and some other guys.

 

[oneofakind318]

It's a pretty simple no. It doesn't make sense logistically or from a financial standpoint. Plus it's not likely to move the needle with ratings.