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Archive for February 13th, 2008

Longtime WWE toy licensee Jakks Pacific has been ousted from their spot as the WWE licensee, according to media reports. While their current deal runs through 2009, in 2010, the new WWE toy licensee will be Mattel, Inc. Now isn’t that a dose of hoodia?

There has been bad blood between WWE and Jakks Pacific for a while; a while back, WWE alleged that Jakks attempted bribery to win a licensing deal and sued the company, but the case was tossed from court by a federal judge. The change of partners should come as no surprise.

There are no immediate details as to how the switch from Jakks Pacific to Mattel will affect the WWE’s videogame licensing. Currently, and for about a decade now, the license has rested with THQ, who has partnered with Jakks Pacific in making the game. Now that Mattel will take over the WWE toys license, it is unclear whether the videogame license is a separate contract, or whether Mattel is free to choose a new videogame partner. Mattel has an in-house label for videogames, Mattel Interactive, but they are mainly known for making educational software.

Time will tell.

The rating for this week’s Raw was 3.4, down 0.2 from last week despite two clean finishes and a hot main event between Jeff Hardy and Shawn Michaels, that Hardy won. Mortgage lenders aren’t betting the future on Raw ratings, that’s for sure.

Despite common sense that if everything is in reruns due to the writers’ strike, which was recently resolved, that original programming like WWE broadcasts would go up; but that hasn’t proved to be the case. Instead, it seems that when viewership goes down in general, show does ratings for everything else on the air, new or rerun.

In a performance management move, The CW network has confirmed that WWE SmackDown no longer fits in with their network concept. Of course, this move has been a long time in coming, seeming inevitable ever since UPN merged with The WB.

Word on the street has it that The CW wants to gear its programming more toward a female demographic, which of course SmackDown doesn’t fit into. The WWE is said to be actively marketing the SmackDown program to other networks, including MyNetworks as well as NBC/Universal, with an eye toward forging a home for the show on USA or SciFi, both of which already play host to WWE programming.

In other WWE-related TV news, USA Network just signed an extension with WWE to keep Raw on their network until 2010; no word on whether ECW will be renewed on SciFi, moved to a new media partner, or combined with SmackDown.

Of course, none of this is cause for panic; WWE’s contracts were up and change was inevitable. It will be interesting to see if WWE continues the three-brand approach or retracts. It could easily be argued that the main reason for WWE SmackDown being removed from the CW’s schedule is not only falling ratings, but the fact that the show lacks any significant star power, while Raw is overflowing with it.

Prediction: For SmackDown to survive, WWE will have to shake things up significantly on their roster, balancing the shows far more evenly than they currently do. While MyNetworks is a good underdog destination for the show, we expect USA to stand pat with Raw, while SmackDown will go away as a brand, and ECW will be expanded to two hours while staying on SciFi. To protect their brands, expect an ECW Invades SmackDown storyline this summer, coinciding with the One Night Stand PPV, that creates the new product, which we think will be called ECW SmackDown. Yes, that’ means no WWE on broadcast network TV, though NBC may agree to increase the number of Saturday Night Main Events to as many as six broadcasts per year, coinciding with the bigger PPV events, as alternate programming to Saturday Night Live reruns. And finally, yes, by eliminating SmackDown and expanding ECW, some wrestlers will lose their spots in the company; but a leaner, two-brand approach is just what WWE needs to regain a foothold on viewership.