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WWE SmackDown
File:Fridaynightsmackdown.png
Created by	Vince McMahon
Starring	SmackDown! Brand
Opening theme	"Rise Up 2006" by Drowning Pool
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	433 (as of December 7 2007)
Production
Camera setup	Multicamera setup
Running time	Approximately 2 hours per episode (1 hour 30 minutes and commercials)
Original release
Network	UPN (1999 – 2006) The CW (2006 – Present)
Release	August 26 1999 – Present

WWE Friday Night SmackDown! is a professional wrestling television program for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) currently it is the only television broadcast for the SmackDown! brand. From its launch in 1999, SmackDown! was shown on Thursday nights, but as of September 9 2005, the show moved to Friday nights. To reflect this change, the show is now referred to as Friday Night SmackDown!. The SmackDown! brand is currently one of WWE's three brands, the other two being RAW and ECW.

It currently airs in the United States on The CW, in Canada on The Score Network and on CH Montreal, in Turkey on S'nek, in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan on Ten Sports, in Germany on DSF, in the UK and Republic of Ireland on Sky Sports 3, in Finland on MTV3 MAX, in Portugal on TVI, in the Dominican Republic on Antena Latina Channel 7, in Puerto Rico on Televicentro and on The CW, in Chile on Chilevisión, in Mexico on 52MX, in Australia on FOX8, in New Zealand on Sky 1, in the Philippines on Jack TV, ABC and RPN, in Peru on ATV , in Spain on Cuatro, in Romania on TV Sport, in Serbia on FOX Televizija, in Saudi Arabia and Middle East on Showtime Arabia ShowSports 4, in France on NT1, in Japan on J Sports, on e.tv in South Africa, on AFN Xtra, on the Super Channel (Channel 10) in Fiji Islands, on VTV in El Salvador, on Canal 9 in Argentina, and on Canal 4 RPC in Panama.

Show history

Original format

SmackDown! first appeared on April 29 1999 as a single television special on UPN. On August 26 1999, SmackDown! officially debuted on UPN, in Kansas City, Missouri. Like WCW Thunder, SmackDown! was recorded on Tuesdays and then broadcast on Thursdays. The new WWF show was so popular that WCW moved Thunder to Wednesdays in the hope of holding on to fans rather than losing them to the WWF. SmackDown!, like Thunder, made heavy use of the color blue, earning it the nickname "The Blue Show" amongst wrestling fans.

The first SmackDown! set was unique as it featured an oval-shaped TitanTron (which was dubbed the "OvalTron"), entrance and stage which made it stand out from the RAW set and its rectangular TitanTrons. An added feature to the original set was the ability for the OvalTron to be moved to either the left or right of the stage. Throughout the show's early existence, top WWF superstar The Rock routinely called SmackDown! "his" show, in reference to the fact that the name was derived from one of his catchphrases, "Laying the smackdown." In August 2001, as part of celebrating SmackDown!'s second anniversary, the show received its current logo and set. The last SmackDown! to use the previous television set saw Alliance member Rhyno deliver the Gore to WWF member Chris Jericho through the OvalTron, destroying part of the set.

Brand Extension

In early to mid-2002, WWE underwent a process they called the "Brand Extension". WWE divided itself into two "de facto" wrestling promotions with separate rosters, storylines and authority figures. RAW and SmackDown! would host each division, give its name to the division and essentially compete against each other. The split was a result of WWF purchasing their two biggest competitors, WCW and ECW. The brand extension was publicly announced during a telecast of WWF RAW on March 25 2002, and became official the next day.

Wrestlers now would become show-exclusive, wrestling for their specific show only. At the time this excluded the WWE Undisputed Championship and WWE Women's Championship, as those WWE titles would be defended on both shows. In August 2002, WWE Undisputed Champion Brock Lesnar refused to defend the title on RAW, in effect causing his title to become exclusive to SmackDown! The following week on RAW, General Manager Eric Bischoff awarded a newly instated World Heavyweight Championship to RAW's designated #1 contender, Triple H. Due to the fact that since the WWE Undisputed Championship was now SmackDown! exclusive it was no longer seen as "Undisputed". Following this, the WWE Women's Championship soon became RAW-exclusive as well. As a result of the Brand Extension, an annual "draft lottery" was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups.

On June 6 2005, WWE Champion John Cena switched brands from SmackDown! to RAW as part of the month-long Draft Lottery. This effectively left SmackDown! without a World Title. During this time, United States Champion Orlando Jordan was billed as the top champion on the show. On June 23 2005, in Tucson, SmackDown! General Manager Theodore Long announced a six-man elimination match between John "Bradshaw" Layfield, Booker T, Chris Benoit, The Undertaker, Christian (replacing The Big Show, who was picked by RAW in the lottery), and Muhammad Hassan to crown the first SmackDown! Champion. On the June 30 episode of SmackDown!, JBL won the match. Long appeared afterward and stated that even though JBL had won the match, SmackDown! did not need a Championship anymore. Batista, the World Heavyweight Champion, entered the ring as SmackDown!'s final draft lottery pick. Long also revealed that JBL was the number one contender for the World Heavyweight Championship.

Friday Night SmackDown!

It was possible that WWE's "lame duck" status with Viacom on Spike TV is what prompted its moving SmackDown! to the Friday night death slot for the Fall 2005 season. However, it worked out for both parties involved, as the show did better in the ratings than it had on Thursdays, while UPN received much better ratings on Fridays than it did before, with its movie night. In addition, UPN had been able to hold on to the ratings from Thursday nights, most notably with comedian Chris Rock's Wonder Years-like sitcom Everybody Hates Chris. In January 2006, prior to the announcement of the CW Network, it was announced that UPN had renewed SmackDown! for two more years.

Following the cancellation of Star Trek: Enterprise, SmackDown! was renamed Friday Night SmackDown! and moved into Enterprise's former timeslot in the United States. WWE promoted this move with the tagline "TV that's changing Friday nights." Friday Night SmackDown! made its season premiere on September 9 2005. The program still aired on Thursdays in Canada on the Score. In the United Kingdom and Australia, their stations Sky Sports and FOX8 air SmackDown! on Fridays before the United States due to the time difference. This is the first time a major weekly WWE show airs internationally before it hits screens in the U.S.

The events of Hurricane Katrina affected the first edition of Friday Night SmackDown! in the U.S. due to a special fundraising concert (see Shelter From the Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast) that aired on UPN at the same time that the first edition would have been broadcast, resulting in only the second hour of the show being shown on UPN. The first hour was instead streamed from WWE's website. Other countries, including Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and the Philippines received the full two-hour show. WWOR-TV (My 9, New York, New York) also aired both hours of the show on tape delay on Saturday, due to a previous commitment to broadcast the New York Yankees on Friday nights.

At the SmackDown! taping on January 10 2006, Batista had to forfeit the World Heavyweight Championship because of a triceps injury. Theodore Long made a Battle Royal for the vacant title. The winner was at the time RAW superstar Kurt Angle, who later switched to the SmackDown! brand. In a break from their traditional role of acting as if SmackDown! is not pre-recorded, WWE.com had a photograph of Angle holding his new title on the main page. WWE also did this when Edge cashed in his Money in the Bank contract to win the World Heavyweight Championship from The Undertaker and when The Great Khali won a battle royal after Edge's injury.

On the April 7 2006 edition of SmackDown!, general manager Theodore Long announced that the King of the Ring tournament would return after a four year hiatus as a SmackDown!-exclusive tournament. The tournament ended at Judgment Day 2006 with Booker T as the winner, defeating Bobby Lashley in the final.

On June 9 2006, Tazz left the SmackDown! brand to join the new ECW brand, leaving the color commentator position on SmackDown! vacant. However, on June 11 at One Night Stand 2006, JBL revealed that he would be the new color commentator for SmackDown!

The CW Network

2006

On September 22 2006, Friday Night SmackDown! debuted on the The CW Television Network, a joint venture between CBS Corporation, owner of UPN, and Warner Bros. Entertainment, a subsidiary of Time Warner, majority owner of The WB.

For four weeks before the official premiere (and in preparation for the impending removal of UPN in several markets by the debut of MyNetworkTV on September 5 2006) of Friday Night SmackDown! on the CW on September 22 2006, Tribune Broadcasting television stations in six major markets (including WPIX in New York City and KTLA in Los Angeles) aired WWE's Friday Night SmackDown! early in September 2006. Two other future affiliates of The CW, WCWJ in Jacksonville, Florida and WIWB in Green Bay, Wisconsin, also aired SmackDown! in early September as well.

The transition to the CW caused an interruption in the broadcast of SmackDown! in the state of Utah beginning in June when KPNZ in Salt Lake City stopped airing all UPN programs early. The show is now seen on KUCW. In Hawaii, SmackDown! returned in late 2006, airing on a CW digital subchannel of Honolulu's FOX affiliate KHON (Channel 2), which has received statewide carriage over Oceanic Time Warner Cable. Since the move to the CW Network, Friday Night SmackDown! has shown a major increase in ratings now averaging a 3.0 national rating. In addition, SmackDown! has become the second highest watched program on The CW.

2007

On April 20 2007, SmackDown! celebrated its 400th episode. Ratings success soon followed. On June 8 2007, Friday Night SmackDown! made CW history by making a three-way tie with CBS and ABC in the key ad demographic, adults 18-49 by drawing a 1.5 rating each. On June 22 2007, Friday Night SmackDown! again made CW history by tying the network for first place in the key ad demographic, adults 18-49, and being the second most watched network program at 9 p.m. for the night. The CW had not performed as well at any time slot since America's Next Top Model in March 2007. The next week on June 29 2007, Friday Night SmackDown! helped The CW claim the top spot in the key demographic, Adults 18-49 for Friday. CBS got the overall lead but The CW got top spot for the Adults 18-49 by registering a 1.4 rating followed by CBS and NBC at 1.3, ABC at 1.2, and FOX at 0.9. Then on Friday, July 13 2007, Friday Night SmackDown! made network history by placing first in the 18-49 demographic and becoming the most watched show at the 9 p.m. hour on network television. This is the first time anything has placed this well on The CW. SmackDown! became a hit show on Friday nights winning the demographics for young males, and ranking second on the demographics (18-49) for Friday nights.

On October 16 2007 it was announced that the SmackDown! and ECW brands would begin a "talent exchange", allowing their respective talent to appear and compete on either brand.

Induction into Merriam-Webster

On July 10 2007, Merriam-Webster announced it would induct the word smackdown into Webster's Dictionary. According to Merriam Webster, a smackdown is:

• the act of knocking down or bringing down an opponent
• a contest in entertainment wrestling
• a decisive defeat
• a confrontation between rivals or competitors

Production

Friday Night SmackDown! is usually taped on Tuesday evening and aired Friday evening on The CW the same week. Occasionally however, it is taped on Monday nights before or after RAW in what is called a "Supershow". The show has rarely aired live.

The most recent theme song for SmackDown! was "Rise Up!" by Drowning Pool, a remake of SmackDown!'s fifth anniversary instrumental theme song. It was performed by then-lead singer Jason "Gong" Jones and featured on the WWE ThemeAddict: The Music, Vol. 6 album. Currently however, the theme song for the SmackDown! brand is "Rise Up 2006" by Drowning Pool, a new version of "Rise Up!" performed by new lead singer Ryan McCombs and featured as a bonus downloadable track on the WWE Wreckless Intent album.

Special episodes

• SmackDown! Debut (August 26 1999)
• 9/11 Tribute (September 13 2001)
• Christmas from Baghdad (December 25 2003)
• SmackDown! Night of Champions (December 2005)
• Tribute to the Troops (December 23 2004)
• Eddie Guerrero Tribute Show (November 18 2005)
• SmackDown! Special (November 29 2005)
• SmackDown! 400th episode (April 20 2007)
• WWE: Best of 2007 (December 28 2007)

On-air personalities

Champions

General Managers

• Vickie Guerrero - Assistant General Manager (May 25 2007 - September 28 2007)
• Theodore Long - Assistant General Manager (November 30 2007 - Present)

Commentators

Ring Announcers

Recurring segments

References

1. "Mixed views on WB, UPN merger". Variety.com. Retrieved 2006-08-04.
2. WWE, Tribune announce September SmackDown! schedule. WWE.com
3. Friday Night SmackDown!deliversRajah.com
4. WWE Ratings Come In StrongRajah.com
5. "Partnership Forming?". WWE. October 16 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-25. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
6. "Setting the night on fire". ECW results. WWE. Retrieved 2007-10-25.
7. "msnbc.msn.com". Retrieved 2007-07-23.
8. "m-w.com/dictionary/smackdown". Retrieved 2007-07-23.
9. "WWE Best of 2007". WWE. 2007-12-01. Retrieved 2007-12-01. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
10. "SmackDown! results - April 10, 2003". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-08-01.
11. "SmackDown! results - April 15, 2005". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-08-01.
12. "SmackDown! results - August 18, 2005". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-08-01.
13. "SmackDown! results - March 09, 2007". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-08-01.
14. "SmackDown! results - June 01, 2007". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-08-01.
15. "SmackDown! results - August 17, 2007". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-08-17.

See also

• World Wrestling Entertainment roster (SmackDown! Brand)
• WWE Velocity
• WWE Raw
• Extreme Championship Wrestling (WWE)

External links

• WWE Friday Night SmackDown! at CWTV.com

Template:WWE programs

• 1999 television program debuts
• 1990s American television series
• 2000s American television series
• CW network shows
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