This is not the year MyNetworkTV will pose a serious threat to the Big Four broadcast networks, but it will narrow the ratings gap between the troubled CW.

After a rough start airing primetime soap operas its first year, MNT began to find itself last season, morphing into a network targeting men and African Americans, similar to the old UPN, with a lineup heavy on reality shows.

Its total audience jumped 34 percent, to a still-tiny 1.1 million viewers, just under half the CW's 2.3 million, and it was up 33 percent in 18-49s, its primary target audience, to a 0.4 rating.

This season, MNT’s ratings will jump again, say media researchers, in large part because of a new show, “Friday Night SmackDown,” which it picked up from the CW.

“If I were to bet on it, I’d say they would grow again, although I don’t think it’ll be quite as much as last year,” says David Scardino, entertainment specialist at RPA in Santa Monica, Calif. “But they could surprise us because after their first year they were pretty much pronounced dead.”

In addition to drawing viewers, “SmackDown” will give the upstart network a platform to promote its programs to a relatively large slice of new viewers, with the hope that they will return other nights of the week.

“If wrestling holds onto its core audience, MyNetworkTV will go up this year,” says Jordan Breslow, director of broadcast research at MediaCom. “We’ve seen in the past that one show can turn viewers onto a network.”

MNT is at the stage in its early life when it could use the kick. Formed by Fox parent News Corp. in 2006 after UPN and the WB merged into the CW, leaving a slew of stations without a network affiliate, the network had little time to create an identity. It turned to primetime soaps because they were in production and available to throw on the air quickly.

Among its other shows are the returning “Celebrity Expose” and the new “Magic’s Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed” on Mondays.

On Tuesdays, it has the returning “Street Patrol” and “Jail,” its highest-rated show last season. “Jail” is from the creators of “Cops,” the ongoing Fox show that two decades ago helped put the No. 1 network on the map.

Wednesdays consist of a mostly new lineup for MNT.

The unscripted “World’s Funniest Moments” kicks off the night at 8 with one-time talk show host Arsenio Hall. At 9, the new sitcom the “Tony Rock Project,” with the brother of comedian Chris Rock, leads into the returning sitcom “Under One Roof” with rapper and reality star Flavor Flav.

“To get to the next stage, closer to the CW, they need to go beyond reality, which they are starting to do with ‘Tony Rock’ and ‘Under One Roof,’” says Scardino.

Thursdays and Saturdays have movies. MNT doesn’t program on Sundays.

Its biggest change is on Fridays, where “SmackDown” begins airing Oct. 3.

MNT also plans a few specials during the season, including “World Music Awards,” “World Magic Awards” and a new series of specials called “Shaken Not Stirred,” a celebrity roast with mostly urban musicians and performers like Bobby Brown and Ice-T.