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El Rey Exec on Lucha Underground Renewal: “Looks Good”
IGN recently interviewed Skip Chaisson, El Rey Network’s chief creative officer, about the potential of Lucha Underground being renewed for a fourth season. During the interview, Chaisson said the show’s future “looks good.” He would not confirm nor deny, however, the show itself being renewed.
Chaisson noted that one of the biggest talking points at the El Rey Network is where LU fits into their TV schedule going forward. Though he also noted that he and network head/famed filmmaker Robert Rodriguez love the show. “I can’t emphasize enough just how giving the wrestlers are,” he said, “and just working with Eric [Van Wagenen, Lucha Underground’s executive producer] and Chris [DeJoseph, co-executive producer] – it’s just so much fun.”
Luckily for LU, El Rey is still airing season 3 of the series. This leaves plenty of time for the network to decide the show’s future.
Updated WWE Network Subscriber Count Revealed
WWE revealed in their second-quarter earnings report that the WWE Network averaged 1.63 million paid subscribers over the second quarter of 2017. This number is up 8% from last year. 1.158 million were from the United States while 410,000 were international.
The earnings report revealed that there was also a 6% increase in revenue generated by the WWE Network and pay-per-view buys, which totals to $54.9 million. WWE Network subscription revenue increased 7% to $49.1 million from $45.9 million in the prior year quarter based on an 8% year-over-year increase in average paid subscribers to over 1.63 million.
WWE expects the average number of paid subscribers to drop to 1.54 million in the 3rd quarter.
Internal Concern Within WWE Over Recent Cutbacks
WWE is expected to announce their earning reports this Thursday and there is some internal concern within the company regarding those reports.
Bryan Alvarez discussed the earning reports on today’s installment of Wrestling Observer Live and mentioned that he heard that employees within the company are worried, especially with the recent cutbacks. With the decision to cut pyros from weekly programming and cutting shows with low viewership from the network, has many concerned.
Speaking of pyros, Alvarez mentioned that the company spent millions of dollars on the WrestleMania 33 set, which attributed to the company cutting the pyros. The decision to drop pyros for the time being was a cost cutting measure and Alvarez indicated that there is a chance that WWE may bring the pyros back in the future.