World Wrestling Entertainment issued an advisory to the media, including PWInsider.com, early this morning, announcing that Friday Night Smackdown would not sign a new contract with the CW Network as the two sides had decided to end their working relationship, thus the series would be leave the CW Network at the end of the 2008 broadcast season.

Smackdown initially premiered as a special in 1999 on the fledgling UPN Network before being launched as the first weekly professional wrestling series in decades on broadcast network TV. The series aired on Thursdays until 2005, when it was moved to Fridays and rechristened Friday Night Smackdown. There was a belief several years ago that the series was going to be dropped by UPN, specifically after public statements by Les Moonves indicating such, but the series was instead moved to Fridays (considered a graveyard night for TV ratings), where it continued to do well. When UPN and the WB Network merged, Smackdown became one of the series that made the jump to the new network and continued to do good ratings, particulatly among the Hispanic demographic, where it was routinely one of the top weekly series thanks to the star power of Rey Mysterio and the late Eddie Guerrero.

With the agreement from both sides that contractual negotiations have ended, WWE will begin the process of pursuing a new network, whether that be broadcast or cable, for the series.

WWE SmackDown Leaves CW STAMFORD, Conn., February 7, 2008 - The following statement was issued today by World Wrestling Entertainment

After a successful decade of "SmackDown" on both UPN and The CW, World Wrestling Entertainment and The CW have agreed to conclude our partnership. Since The CW's exclusive negotiation period ran out as of last Thursday, January 31, we have been contacted and have been in negotiations with other networks. "WWE SmackDown" will continue to air on The CW until the conclusion of the 2007-08 broadcast season. We are grateful to Les Moonves, Dawn Ostroff, and their entire organization for bringing "WWE SmackDown" to millions of viewers for so many years.