WWE’s SmackDown is moving from Friday nights to Thursday nights on Syfy beginning January 15 at 8pm ET. It’s the No. 1 entertainment show on the network and the most-watched regularly scheduled program on the network. So why fix something that doesn’t need to be fixed? It’s not a fix, it’s a promotion.
“Quite simply, more young men watch television on Thursday night than on Fridays,” said Michael Engleman, Executive Vice President, Marketing, Digital and Global Brand Strategy, Syfy. “Among Men 18-49, PUTS [persons using television] are 15 percent higher compared to Fridays, expanding the potential audience for SmackDown. Since the majority of broadcast programming skews female, we’re also using Thursday nights to counter-program.” Not everyone is happy about the change. Alex Farrell wrote on WWE.com: “I thought WWE was supposed to be family friendly and more kid oriented, if they start focusing on that age of males [18-49 male demographic] then they’re gonna have to go back to some more violent and ‘attitude’ programming.” P.S. This isn’t the first time Smackdown has changed its TV schedule — it used to be on Thursdays!
