ECW upgraded to Stable: Renewed for 2008
 

SCI FI CHANNEL REUPS WWE®’S ECW® THROUGH 2008

New York, N.Y., October 23, 2007 - SCI FI Channel and World Wrestling Entertainment® today announced that the hit program, ECW (Extreme Championship Wrestling®, will continue on the network through 2008.

WWE is also the producer of the No. 1 weekly basic cable TV series, “Monday Night RAW®” on USA Network.

This year (Jan-Sept), SCI FI has been the #1 cable network for men ages 18-34 in ECW's Tuesday 10pm time period.

For more information go to ECW.com http://www.wwe.com/shows/ecw/ and www.SCIFI.com.

SCI FI Channel is a television network where "what if" is what's on. SCI FI fuels the imagination of viewers with original series and events, blockbuster movies and classic science fiction and fantasy programming, as well as a dynamic Web site (www.scifi.com) and magazine. Launched in 1992, and currently in 85 million homes, SCI FI Channel is a network of NBC Universal, one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies.

World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: WWE), is an integrated media and entertainment company headquartered in Stamford, Conn., with offices in New York City, Los Angeles, Toronto and London. Additional information on the company can be found at wwe.com <http://wwe.com> and corporate.wwe.com <http://corporate.wwe.com/>.

Media Contact: Sallie Schoneboom, SCI FI Channel, 212-664-3467
Bill Brennan, SCI FI Channel, 212-664-4898
Gary Davis, WWE, 203-353-5066
Investor Contact: Michael Weitz, WWE, 203-352-8642

From PWInsider.

So it's going to continue past December?

That's the gist i guess.

Well a brand war between ECW and Smackdown could be cool, now they have nore time to play with.

The Brand combining thing was probably set up as a plan b if Sci Fi pulled out

Why?

ECW has been doing terrible cable ratings. It's been below Sci Fi original programming, FFS!

I know that they said it led the 18-35 demo, but they also said Raw was the #1 basic cable show, which is bullshit to the nth.

If ECW was doing its original ratings, I could understand that.

^ Hater

If that's what you call a pragmatist who is wondering why a business would opt to continue to support a failing "brand" in the face of lackluster ratings (And when your ratings can be compared to Mosquito 2: With a Veangeance, yes, you're lackluster), then yep.

I've been called worse for using my brain before. No wonder people are so scared of it.

No one is afraid of your brain, KK.

I see your point. The ratings for ECW are lackluster, but I believe the show is the highest rated on Sci-Fi. I personally can't be fucked checking that, but that's what reports have told me. If they're accurate, I don't think it matters how poorly the show is doing, it's still better in comparison to everything else. Sci-Fi strikes me as a network trying to get any kind of win they can.

If I were the WWE, I would not celebrate yet. The show should be doing what it originally got, at the very least. Just because it got its deal renewed, so not mean that it's not a failure.

Not what I was going for, 'Noid.

Also, ECW WAS the highest rated show on Sci Fi. Now it does less than what Sci Fi original movies and Battlestar were doing last season. I'd wager Doctor Who also outdid it.

People stopped watching months ago. It's just not moving like it was back when people thought (Silly as it may be) that WWE might actually put some effort into it.

The Pro Wrestling numbers that people keep reposting are slightly above the best Sci Fi ratings, but they're also the numbers that made it "breaking news" when WWE recently went under 3.0 fir the "first time."

Okay, KK, this is the WWE we're talking about here. Do you really have to ASK?!

LOL ''the hit programme'...

I'm asking, by the way, why Sci Fi would sign on.

The real appeal for Sci Fi is the premise that it would draw wrestling ratings to their tiny network.

If this is accurate, perhaps we should downgrade ECW from "stable." Sounds more like a last chance.

Honestly, I got an even better question: What the fuck were they wanting to gain or HOPING to gain, or DID gain, from taking ECW in the FIRST fucking place?

ECW brought in big ratings for the first couple of weeks.

Then good ratings for a couple of months.

Finally, you had BDC approved retards watching it, and nobody else.

They hoped to gain more viewers. Wrestling has, historically, done good numbers. Who wouldn't want a piece of that?

The question is why, now that it's doing worse ratings that their own programming, would they want a piece of it?

I sometimes download ECW and skip through it looking for interesting stuff, but to me it's just a developmental show. We all know that if it breeds a potential big star, they'll immediately get bumped up to one of the main shows.

I was actually hoping it'd get canned so that the roster could be redistributed to strengthen the mid card of SD and Raw.

LOL

For the record, having ECW around just hurts their already terribly watered down product,

I agr...Wait. are we talking WWE or Sci Fi?

Remember when Sci Fi Channel was cool

That was almost as long ago as when WWE was cool

Correction. WWE was never cool, only the WWF was.

The same's true for the Sci Fi Channel.

When the hell was the Sci Fi Channel Cool?

When they aired Mystery Science Theater 3000.