10 Times WWE's Smackdown Brand Got Shafted
6. Smackdown Moves To Fridays (2005)
Friday nights are considered death for network television shows. Many young people reserve that night for hanging with their friends or going on dates. In the summer of 2005, it was announced that Smackdown, a Thursday resident of six years, would be moving to the weekend-starter night beginning that September. It was a time slot the show would hold for over nine years.
The average rating of a 2005 Smackdown was a 3.04. In 2006, the first full year of Friday editions, the average rating plummeted to a 2.46, a 19 percent drop in a year. By 2014, Friday Night Smackdown (by this point on cable instead of network TV) fell to a 1.89 average.
Smackdown's increasing irrelevance certainly played a part, but being on Fridays didn't help.