Big Update On The Future Of SD! Inside Here, More

While Friday Night SmackDown has performed quite well for MyNetworkTV, the station’s overall ratings are worse off than last year when they didn’t even have the show. This past week, the overall rating for MyNetworkTV was at 0.88, but if you subtract Smackdown’s record rating, it’s an anemic 0.60 for the rest of the week.

There was hope that WWE would not only boost the ratings of MyNetworkTV, but bring new viewers to the network to help other programming. Historically, pro wrestling’s weakness has been its inability to get viewers to watch other shows on the station it’s on. That’s pretty much why The CW Television Network canceled SmackDown last year despite the program’s solid ratings.

The lackluster ratings for the station is bad news for both MyNetworkTV and World Wrestling Entertainment because SmackDown probably won’t be able to save the network on its own. Some television insiders have speculated that the network could go under in 2010 or 2011. They’ve already got one foot out the door as MyNetworkTV executives ceased production on all original programming last month for a rerun based format instead.

If worse comes to worst, the only avenue left for SmackDown would be the even-weaker WGN, which is at the end of the dial on most cable providers and generally features several year old reruns of America’s Funniest Home Videos, Becker, Nash Bridges and I Dream of Jeannie. The main reason WWE went to WGN for the upcoming “Superstars” show is so they’d at least have something to fall back on in case MyNetworkTV went under.

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