DL: FOX to fill Friday Nights in spring with UFL

[4th&long]

https://deadline.com/2024/05/fox-fall-2 ... 235913421/

>> Also, for the first time in five years, there is no WWE SmackDown on Fridays as the network is replacing the departing wrestling franchise with sports coverage of college football and basketball as well as UFL. <<

As predicted UFL will be filling the Smackdown void on Fox Friday nights in spring as CFB does in fall.

So expansion may make sense as well to fill Friday nights - plus regionalization.
 

[XFL Crusader]

FOX is committed to spring football.

They should commission a theme song for UFL on Friday Nights. Present the situation as a special broadcast. Amp it up. 

[MarkNelson]

I love to hear that Fox is planning to take it further with spring football. Since they’ve become a 50% investor in this league, it was my fear that they would lose interest and pull out similar to how NBC did with the XFL in 2001.

After all, Fox is known for cancelling programming. Would they cancel the UFL? Yes, if the ratings dried up.  Let’s all hope it never comes to that. 

[GregParks]

Friday night is an interesting experiment, and putting games in network prime time is never a bad sign for confidence in the league. We spent a lot of time last year criticizing the XFL and ESPN for putting games in "non-traditional" timeslots instead of a consistent weekend afternoon/evening spot. I know that college football has moved into Friday nights in some spots so it has become more "traditional" but I do wonder how many will follow the league to Friday nights versus the ease of knowing it's every Saturday/Sunday afternoon like this year.

[4th&long]

Friday night is an interesting experiment, and putting games in network prime time is never a bad sign for confidence in the league. We spent a lot of time last year criticizing the XFL and ESPN for putting games in "non-traditional" timeslots instead of a consistent weekend afternoon/evening spot. I know that college football has moved into Friday nights in some spots so it has become more "traditional" but I do wonder how many will follow the league to Friday nights versus the ease of knowing it's every Saturday/Sunday afternoon like this year.

 

The issue with Saturday/Sunday afternoons is its competing with spring weather.  Friday has other pitfalls (will it compete with Smackdown on USA for example or people out on a Friday night).  But with CFB Friday morphing into spring UFL Fridays they should be ok.

Fox needs the UFL, they'll do alot to keep it going.

[johnnyangryfuzzball]

Friday night is an interesting experiment, and putting games in network prime time is never a bad sign for confidence in the league. We spent a lot of time last year criticizing the XFL and ESPN for putting games in "non-traditional" timeslots instead of a consistent weekend afternoon/evening spot. I know that college football has moved into Friday nights in some spots so it has become more "traditional" but I do wonder how many will follow the league to Friday nights versus the ease of knowing it's every Saturday/Sunday afternoon like this year.


 

The issue with Saturday/Sunday afternoons is its competing with spring weather.  Friday has other pitfalls (will it compete with Smackdown on USA for example or people out on a Friday night).  But with CFB Friday morphing into spring UFL Fridays they should be ok.

Fox needs the UFL, they'll do alot to keep it going.

Fox has never done well programming Fridays. That's why SmackDown was there in the first place, LOL.

But this move makes sense. Remember, back in 2020, there were some XFL games scheduled in the Thursday night time slot because Fox had Thursday Night Football at the time before Amazon gobbled up the exclusive rights. (Those games, alas, were never allowed to be played.) So there is a precedent for this strategy—and Friday night works well. It's one less night of scripted programming Fox (which of course sold most of its production assets to Disney back in 2019) has to commission from elsewhere. They already do this with Saturdays so it's a natural progression for them.

As for SmackDown, with Johnson on the WWE / TKO board of directors now, it's going to be interesting what kind of audience he's drawing with each.

[GregParks]

The one thing we can say is expectations will probably be low for viewership on Friday nights. 

Also: Does this mean the league has already made the decision when to schedule the season next year? Keep the current one or go back to the XFL-style of February start?

[4th&long]

Friday night is an interesting experiment, and putting games in network prime time is never a bad sign for confidence in the league. We spent a lot of time last year criticizing the XFL and ESPN for putting games in "non-traditional" timeslots instead of a consistent weekend afternoon/evening spot. I know that college football has moved into Friday nights in some spots so it has become more "traditional" but I do wonder how many will follow the league to Friday nights versus the ease of knowing it's every Saturday/Sunday afternoon like this year.





 

The issue with Saturday/Sunday afternoons is its competing with spring weather.  Friday has other pitfalls (will it compete with Smackdown on USA for example or people out on a Friday night).  But with CFB Friday morphing into spring UFL Fridays they should be ok.

Fox needs the UFL, they'll do alot to keep it going.

Fox has never done well programming Fridays. That's why SmackDown was there in the first place, LOL.

But this move makes sense. Remember, back in 2020, there were some XFL games scheduled in the Thursday night time slot because Fox had Thursday Night Football at the time before Amazon gobbled up the exclusive rights. (Those games, alas, were never allowed to be played.) So there is a precedent for this strategy—and Friday night works well. It's one less night of scripted programming Fox (which of course sold most of its production assets to Disney back in 2019) has to commission from elsewhere. They already do this with Saturdays so it's a natural progression for them.

As for SmackDown, with Johnson on the WWE / TKO board of directors now, it's going to be interesting what kind of audience he's drawing with each.

 

 

Its really not a progression for Fox as they already have the WWE Smackdown on Friday - which is not really a scripted "show" while it its scripted within WWE, its still live "sports" for TV purposes.  So its more of a substituition.  

Remember when they sold out big chunk to Disney their plan was 1- live sports, 2- News and 3- Reality TV.  That's supplemented by scripted shows.

The real giveaway was the push for USC-UCLA-WASH-Orgeon and the huge fees paid to B1G-10.  CBB and UFL fill out the calendar.

[MGB01]

The one thing we can say is expectations will probably be low for viewership on Friday nights. 

Also: Does this mean the league has already made the decision when to schedule the season next year? Keep the current one or go back to the XFL-style of February start?

I think making them part of the upfronts (don't remember what, if any, the XFL was five years ago) suggests this isn't gonna be just two games at the end of the year.

Now the question is, you kind of have to go bigger here if you're doing so, so are you maybe going to see the return of the USFL draft from '23 only this time mix it/lean more into the Kenny Robinson strategy? It wasn't a total loss, after all guys with no NFL future (at least in the near-term, looking at Taulia Tagovoiloa, and going into next year, Cam Ward) could become the next Adrian Martinez, that'd be the selling point.

[slammer66]

I would love to see a Monday night game as well.  It's not always easy to get the free time on the weekends for football games.