Exciting—and confusing—TV news for y’all. For whatever reason, SyFy, once upon a time known as the Sci-Fi Channel, has agreed to air WWE Friday Night SmackDown! beginning in October. SyFy already airs WWE NXT (remember: we are wild and young), but now SmackDown? When did SyFy betray its roots of terrible alien movies and Stephen King movies?
Word on the street is that WWE moved SmackDown to SyFy because the current network, MyNetworkTV, is pretty much dead. It hardly has any original programming of its own anymore, and it doesn’t even subscribe to “regular” ratings services anymore. At this point, My Network TV is right at the level of a mildly popular YouTube channel.
Again, SyFy isn’t new to WWE, having aired ECW in the past. It currently airs NXT, which is a show that showcases new guys. I mean, Bryan Danielson has been around for 10 years, and has wrestled all over the world, and is probably as good a worker as you’ll find in the company these days, but whatever.
I guess the question I pose to you is: where does SyFy fit in your life these days? I’m going to assume that, as tech fans, you’re relatively cool with science fiction. Does SyFy still appeal to you? Or are you too busy fiddling with your iPad or PS3 to give a damn about cable TV these days?
Or maybe SyFy is just one channel out of 600 that you never bother to watch?
I don’t know why they’re keeping SmackDown on Friday nights—don’t most normal people go out on Friday nights? Or is WWE of the mentality that, “Well, our target audience these days is kids, and they’re not going out and getting hammered once they get out of school on Fridays.”