The plan is to introduce a third cast for NXT tonight during the "season finale", incorporating Rookie Divas into the mix as a way to potentially boost the final ratings. The series will leave SyFy on 10/1, giving them a little less than two months to build to another finale. There's talk of moving the show to WWE.com or incorporating it onto Raw and Smackdown if the company doesn't secure another home for it. Since WWE can only take the cable series to a home under the NBC-Universal umbrella, it's becoming quite the challenge for them.
As far as why SyFy is not retaining the series, it's a matter of the ratings. SyFy was originally sold on the ECW series in 2006 as being a stand alone property that would be exclusive to their network. The show brought in good ratings but eventually morphed into just another WWE style show and while there was good wrestling on it, it was hardly must-see television in comparison to Raw and Smackdown.
Feeling that they didn't get what was promised (and that the show wasn't the ECW they expected to get, I am told), SyFy met with WWE about dropping the series but Kevin Dunn (who was against the idea of bringing ECW back to begin with) pitched the reality aspect of NXT. I was told that SyFy signed off on it under the belief that the show would do better ratings than ECW had been doing, specifically based on Dunn's concept and pitch, as well as the idea that WWE "stars" as Pros would bring ratings.
As we all know, that wasn't the case and at times, the series dipped lower than the ECW series had been scoring in the ratings. When Smackdown was pitched to SyFy, the network saw it as their chance to bring in a WWE franchise that had done reasonably well on network television and anchor the network's Friday evenings.
However, with the addition of Smackdown, SyFy opted to drop NXT, feeling they would rather put their resources into a stronger series than something that didn't deliver what was initially promised by Kevin Dunn.
PWI
I'm glad WWE are taking away one show. It's getting hard for someone to keep up with everything going on. It'd be good to move Superstars to Tuesday and air it live (Have some Raw stars appear too). If WWE add the IC or US belt to Superstars (Along with Miz or Dolph Ziggler) then you could market the show around that belt and also feature some decent wrestlers (Like Chris Masters vs. Evan Bourne or Zack Ryder vs. Bourne or Masters vs. Swagger) but please make it a show which will make people want to tune in. I wouldn't tune in if I didn't have time to kill on friday. The action is amazing but there's no-one who anyone really will tune in for (I don't see a casual fan tuning in to see Chris Masters.
As far as why SyFy is not retaining the series, it's a matter of the ratings. SyFy was originally sold on the ECW series in 2006 as being a stand alone property that would be exclusive to their network. The show brought in good ratings but eventually morphed into just another WWE style show and while there was good wrestling on it, it was hardly must-see television in comparison to Raw and Smackdown.
Feeling that they didn't get what was promised (and that the show wasn't the ECW they expected to get, I am told), SyFy met with WWE about dropping the series but Kevin Dunn (who was against the idea of bringing ECW back to begin with) pitched the reality aspect of NXT. I was told that SyFy signed off on it under the belief that the show would do better ratings than ECW had been doing, specifically based on Dunn's concept and pitch, as well as the idea that WWE "stars" as Pros would bring ratings.
As we all know, that wasn't the case and at times, the series dipped lower than the ECW series had been scoring in the ratings. When Smackdown was pitched to SyFy, the network saw it as their chance to bring in a WWE franchise that had done reasonably well on network television and anchor the network's Friday evenings.
However, with the addition of Smackdown, SyFy opted to drop NXT, feeling they would rather put their resources into a stronger series than something that didn't deliver what was initially promised by Kevin Dunn.
PWI
I'm glad WWE are taking away one show. It's getting hard for someone to keep up with everything going on. It'd be good to move Superstars to Tuesday and air it live (Have some Raw stars appear too). If WWE add the IC or US belt to Superstars (Along with Miz or Dolph Ziggler) then you could market the show around that belt and also feature some decent wrestlers (Like Chris Masters vs. Evan Bourne or Zack Ryder vs. Bourne or Masters vs. Swagger) but please make it a show which will make people want to tune in. I wouldn't tune in if I didn't have time to kill on friday. The action is amazing but there's no-one who anyone really will tune in for (I don't see a casual fan tuning in to see Chris Masters.