Why Did Fox Move SmackDown to Friday Nights?

As we all gawk at Fox's $1 billion acquisition of SmackDown, there's still one question that needs to be answered: why did they move their shiny new WWE toy to the Friday night death slot?

Now that WWE has officially entered the land of major network television, they'll be saddled with a new set of challenges. The first of which being they are no longer network darlings. With NBCUniversal and the USA Network, WWE had earned the benefit of the doubt by accruing years of success. But with well-established shows like Gotham, Empire, The Simpsons, and Family Guy, WWE joins a highly accomplished team of TV shows. As the new guy, albeit an expensive one, WWE will have to prove themselves to their new boss.

Even more, considering its sporty vibes, Fox had to be thoughtful in where they placed Vince McMahon's circus as to not step on the toes of their MLB and NFL coverage.

Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Radio discussed the process of elimination Fox and WWE used in order to get SmackDown in its time slot.

"The reason is they probably felt that Friday is a tough night for television and Saturday nights they're doing a lot of sports they do college football on Saturdays they'd have to pre-empt wrestling all the time. So Saturday is out," he said.

Given the success of Fox's other weekly shows, Friday was really the only option for SmackDown.

"So the idea was to put them on Fox but put them on a night that's not a big night. I think if you put them on Tuesday, yeah they would get bigger numbers but I don't think they would get bigger numbers than what Fox already has on that station."

Using a rotation of Last Man Standing, Hell's Kitchen, and Masterchef Junior, Fox pulls in just over 3 million views on a Friday night. A quick glance at SmackDown's Tuesday night numbers lets us know they're good for about an average of 2.5 views per episode. With SmackDown moving to a bigger network, it's not hard to imagine it doing comparable, if not better, numbers than the shows it will be ousting.

Even more, in SmackDown, Fox has a show that will run year round. For now, the show is two hours, but it could easily be bumped up the three. If WWE were to perform well, that makes Fox's Friday nightlife pretty easy as they'll be able to set and forget the Friday time slot.

This onus to perform likely means WWE will stick its biggest names on SmackDown, inherently making it the new "A-show." While RAW will always be WWE's flagship, the short-term future of SmackDown may be one of the biggest opportunities in the history of WWE.