The Los Angeles Times today reported that Smackdown will be moving from MyNetwork TV to Syfy in the fall. The report stated WWE will officially make the announcement later this week.
It's a major expense as Syfy will reportedly pay $30 million per year for the program, an increase from $20 million the report stated that MyNetwork was paying. That figure doesn't sound correct since CW was paying $700,000 per episode which would have been $36.4 million per year and a difference of that much money would have been evident on the annual reports. It will continue to air on Friday nights, meaning Syfy will be making the same mistake MyNetwork has with what will be the most popular show on its network.
The move will cost Smackdown greatly in viewers. Syfy is in 13 million less homes than MyNetwork, which right off the top will mean a viewership drop of about 12%.
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