WWE REACHES MILESTONE WITH DECADE OF SMACKDOWN
WWE’s Friday Night SmackDown will make history on October 2nd, 2009 by commemorating 10 years on air with a “Decade of SmackDown” themed episode. As a pop culture staple, Friday Night SmackDown has aired more than 520 episodes; surpassing The Simpsons, Married With Children, and Law & Order in total episodes. Over the years, SmackDown has featured such celebrities as Samuel L. Jackson, Ashton Kutcher, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jimmy Kimmel and Sherri Shepherd among many others in its storylines.
On August 26, 1999, SmackDown debuted on UPN. In 2005, the network moved the show to Friday night, which resulted in “Friday Night” being added to its moniker. After its seven year run on UPN, the show joined The CW line-up in September 2006. Merriam-Webster dictionary incorporated, the term “smackdown” in 2007, cementing the program’s relevance in American culture and vernacular. The term is now ubiquitously used by political analysts, columnists, magazine headlines and pundits all describing “the act of knocking down or bringing down an opponent.”
As an entertainment property, SmackDown has been watched more than 2.7 billion times by viewers in the U.S. since its inception and has been instrumental in the success of each of the networks that have aired the program. On October 3, 2008, Friday Night SmackDown moved to its current home, MyNetwork TV, where it holds the network record as most-watched telecast among households and total viewers. SmackDown is the number one show on broadcast television Friday nights among Males 50 and under and dominates the P18-49 demographic.
The show launched with a PG rating. Over a year ago, its sister WWE programs also received the PG rating from their network partners. Now, content across all WWE’s platforms is PG. This move has brought in blue-chip sponsors and advertisers such as Pepsi Max, Gillette, AT&T, Army National Guard and 7-Eleven to the WWE.
Friday Night SmackDown can be seen every Friday night at 8PM ET on MyNetworkTV.
ABOUT WWE
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., a publicly traded company (NYSE: WWE), is an integrated media organization and recognized leader in global entertainment. The company consists of a portfolio of businesses that create and deliver original content 52 weeks a year to a global audience. WWE is committed to family-friendly, PG content across all of its platforms including television programming, pay-per-view, digital media and publishing. WWE programming is broadcast in more than 145 countries and 30 languages and reaches more than 500 million homes worldwide. The company is headquartered in Stamford, Conn., with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, London, Shanghai, Sydney, Tokyo and Toronto. Additional information on World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: WWE) can be found at wwe.com and corporate.wwe.com. For information on our global activities, go to http://www.wwe.com/worldwide/.
