By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

TV industry publication Multichannel News published a feature on WWE Smackdown's move to Syfy beginning October 1. In the feature, a WWE executive said the company believes Smackdown's move will help Raw's TV ratings.

“With Monday Night Raw on USA Network Mondays and Smackdown on Syfy Fridays, we have a great opportunity across NBCU’s cable assets to cross promote our content,” said WWE exec Michelle Wilson. “We feel very strongly that it will grow the audience not only for Smackdown, but for Raw.”

The statement comes on the heels of Raw's lowest rating of the year for last Monday's show. Wilson added that WWE isn't concerned with losing a portion of their audience transitioning Smackdown from broadcast to cable.

“This move gives us virtually the same household penetration, so we’re not really worried about the transition,” Wilson said. " (With) our loyal audience, along with Syfy’s loyal audience and its household penetration, we’re confident that this will be a great move for us."

Smackdown averaged 3.3 million viewers from August 2009 to 2010, according to Multichannel's report. Smackdown's viewership progressively tailed off from an average of 4.3 million viewers on the CW prior to MyNet.

Syfy president Dave Howe said they hope to build a loyal audience on Friday nights. Despite WWE focusing on their product being a scripted entertainment show, Howe curiously said in the story they've been trying to get away from scripted shows on Friday nights.

“We’ve actually wanted to get off of Friday with our scripted fare for several years, and this is an opportunity to do that,” he said.

Caldwell's Analysis: I don't know about WWE carrying over 3.3 million viewers to Syfy on Friday nights. I think a more realistic target is 2.5 million viewers per week, but we'll see what kind of audience WWE can draw. Also, I don't see Smackdown helping grow Raw's audience. WWE has even said throughout the years that they see minimal crossover viewership between Raw and Smackdown. Perhaps that will change now that both are on cable. There will be plenty of interesting information to evaluate when Smackdown moves to cable this week.

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