Hunter's Torn Quad 0 Report post Posted August 31, 2006 Vince McMahon and Bonnie Hammer of NBC Universal concluded negotiations on the deal to renew ECW on Sci-Fi late this afternoon. Terms of the new deal are not available, but ECW will remain Tuesday nights at 10 p.m. and will have a replay showing, which will be determined by Hammer. The deal should be announced publicly before the end of the week. The deal had been considered a given for the past two weeks, as Sci-Fi initially projected a 1.4 rating for the series, which has instead averaged a 2.3. Meltzer. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Blue Bacchus 0 Report post Posted August 31, 2006 Awesome News! I've really enjoyed this incarnation of ECW so far. And I haven't touched an episode of RAW or Sma ckdown in over two years now. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NoCalMike 0 Report post Posted August 31, 2006 I wonder if it gets 2 hours...... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dubq 0 Report post Posted August 31, 2006 2hrs is too much for that roster. It's just fine at 1. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
razazteca 0 Report post Posted August 31, 2006 But I want to see Lil Guido & Tony Mamaluke more than once a month! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cabbageboy 0 Report post Posted August 31, 2006 It's funny someone would say 2 hours is too much considering they don't have a tag division currently and half the roster can't get on TV in a match. How many more Shannon Moore vignettes do we need? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
uhftv 0 Report post Posted August 31, 2006 what a swerve by McMahon!! Providing their lowest rating just hours after their new deal. Take that Sci Fi!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hawk 34 0 Report post Posted August 31, 2006 1.9 is still well above what Sci-Fi was hoping for and WWE expected lowered ratings for yesterday due to the schedule shift. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mole 0 Report post Posted August 31, 2006 What schedule shift? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Taker666 0 Report post Posted August 31, 2006 Great news, I Hope it does get two hours. Just when your about to get into the show, it ends out of nowhere. so a 2nd hour is needed. I think ECW does have enough talent to put on a two hour show. not to mention the new talent thats going to be coming in the future. I'am syked! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hawk 34 0 Report post Posted August 31, 2006 What schedule shift? Raw was moved to Sci-Fi, and with that came the expecation for Raw to do lower then usual ratings as well as ECW as the thinking is that Raw is used to promote ECW for the next night. With lowered ratings on monday, creates a equal reaction for the ECW show. Each show dropped about equally from their average. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MarvinisaLunatic 0 Report post Posted August 31, 2006 They should put Smackdown on Sci Fi too. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Enigma 0 Report post Posted August 31, 2006 I stopped watching after the 7/4 Philadelphia show. I hope this whole thing fails. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Hotbutter Spoontoaster Report post Posted August 31, 2006 They should put Smackdown on Sci Fi too. They should put it back on it's Thursday timeslot of 8pm - 10pm on Sci-Fi. Followed by UFC: TUF and TNA: Impact on SpikeTV for a fun night for wrestling shut-ins. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dubq 0 Report post Posted August 31, 2006 It's funny someone would say 2 hours is too much considering they don't have a tag division currently and half the roster can't get on TV in a match. How many more Shannon Moore vignettes do we need? Is having no tag division supposed to be a reason in favour of going to two hours? Either way, I still stand by the opinion that one hour is fine, and it has nothing to do with how many vignettes there are. It's not that one hour isn't enough, it's that they're just not using it wisely. PS - the entire roster doesn't need to be on every show, every week. Especially considering the ones you're probably talking about are just considered to be "ECW Originals" which translates to ECW JTTS in the "new" ECW dictionary. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jingus 0 Report post Posted August 31, 2006 I think they need a second hour, too. This week, they had only three matches, and they were all singles matches. Aside from the thousand guys who ran in on the main event, that's only FIVE wrestlers getting TV time (I don't count Heyman). Five? Out of a roster of at least a couple dozen people? Yes, they do need to manage the time they have more efficiently. Problem is, the company is owned by the WWE, so it won't. We're gonna be subjected to shit like bikini contests and plugs for Cena's movie forever. So, my suggestion? An ECW b-show. Like Heat or Velocity, but for the new brand instead. Shove all those "CM Punk/Kevin Thorn kills some jobber" matches onto that show and give them one nice long main event every week between some midcarders who might otherwise never get the TV time. Then on Tuesday nights you can focus on the big angles, the main event feuds, the dumbass backstage segments, and so on. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NoCalMike 0 Report post Posted August 31, 2006 The problem with a one hour show is how short the matches have to be. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DrVenkman PhD 0 Report post Posted August 31, 2006 The official press release mentions the show is contracted until at least the end of 2007, so hopefully the OAO thread starters stop using week numbers - unless you plan on making threads like "The OAO Raw Thread - Week #693" (which I now fully expect this week's thread starter to do to spite me). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
FroGG_NeaL 0 Report post Posted August 31, 2006 Damn, Vince must have played some good politics with the Sci-Fi people. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tominator89 0 Report post Posted August 31, 2006 The official press release mentions the show is contracted until at least the end of 2007, so hopefully the OAO thread starters stop using week numbers - unless you plan on making threads like "The OAO Raw Thread - Week #693" (which I now fully expect this week's thread starter to do to spite me). I wonder what the ECW roster will look like in 2007. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Team Angle Pusher 0 Report post Posted August 31, 2006 Damn, Vince must have played some good politics with the Sci-Fi people. They had some politicking to do with Vincent K. McMahon. Who am I here hah? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Art Sandusky 0 Report post Posted August 31, 2006 I think they've done quite well with only an hour. Seriously. It absolutely flies by each week, but there's still a pretty good amount of crap going on at any time. I wish they'd apply such efficiency to their two hour programs. I think a better idea would be a syndicated second hour of matches/angles. Does WWE still have Bottom Line and whatnot? It can take the place of something like that if so. Syndicated programming is still a good option for wrestling, I think. What'll be important about it is the place on the card it would generally entertain. Hardcore TV back in the day was about the same was watching the TNN show and there was always a reason to watch each program. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
EMAXSAUN 0 Report post Posted August 31, 2006 I stopped watching after the 7/4 Philadelphia show. I hope this whole thing fails. Yet you started the ECW thread this week. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
razazteca 0 Report post Posted August 31, 2006 The official press release mentions the show is contracted until at least the end of 2007, so hopefully the OAO thread starters stop using week numbers - unless you plan on making threads like "The OAO Raw Thread - Week #693" (which I now fully expect this week's thread starter to do to spite me). I wonder what the ECW roster will look like in 2007. Like the 2004 Heat/Velocity roster minus the cruiserweights. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest HighBorg Report post Posted August 31, 2006 I'm happy to see that ECW keeps getting high ratings on Sci-Fi. It's not ECW on TNN but It's still better than RAW for me. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
razazteca 0 Report post Posted August 31, 2006 But by having DX on ECW takes away what makes it special. The whole Big Show/Sabu angle will be pushed aside inorder to have HHH & HBK tagging green DX signs around the ring, set, office of Paul Heyman, etc. ECW is for the low-to-mid card wrestlers to showcase their skills and by having the H boys come over to takeover the show pretty much kills whatever momentum ECW had. Its bad enough that the old stars of ECW never get tv time but by having DX do their junivile hijinks on ECW will be seen as desperation attempt to get ratings. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jingus 0 Report post Posted August 31, 2006 Problem is, it probably WILL get ratings. ECW regularly gets more than double whatever rating TNA gets, and almost approaches old Nitro territory. Apparently there is an audience out there for this stuff. (Even though it seems to be dwindling slooooowly in 0.1 increments every week.) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
razazteca 0 Report post Posted August 31, 2006 I don't think the short term spike in ratings from the DX appearence is going to help ECW on Sci-Fi in the long run. Dumping unwanted midcard wrestlers on Sci-Fi hasn't exactly helped the ratings much as its like the executives are thinking hey lets have so and so do a few vignettes and debut in a short 5 minute match against Justin Credible....that'll bring in the ratings. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jingus 0 Report post Posted September 1, 2006 None of their current booking is gonna help in the long run. What they're doing is commonly referred to as "hot-shotting the territory". In the old days, that meant either an energetic new booker (or a desperate old one) moved towards a more crash-TV style of booking in order to bring up the houses. It meant bringing in new wrestlers, having fast-paced storylines wherein feuds started and ended quickly, and a whole shitload of matches with special gimmicks or stipulations. It can work wonders in the short term (see the ratings for that first Nitro where Russo took over), but it never holds up in the long term, because it doesn't think about the long term. ECW is much like that. They book week to week, constantly changing storylines (sometimes even BEFORE the storyline happens), they haven't really had a single feud that's lasted more than a month, they go bizarrely back and forth in an arbitrary manner over which matches are "extreme rulz" and which aren't, and of course (the clearest sign of creative bankruptcy) they bring in constant guest stars. Great for the short term, sure. The core WWE audience will tune in en masse to see what swerve happens this week, what Flair or Batista or DX is gonna do on this show. Problem is, you can't keep doing that forever. There are only so many guest stars in the company you can use before you've exhausted all the important ones. Constant plot twists and swerves only keep the audience's attention for a finite period of time. Eventually, they always get tired of the "oh-my-god I can't believe what just happened this is thegreatestnightinthehistoryofoursport!"shennanigans and just tune out. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
