and devil "by my side", and Beeman timed specific shots to the song's lyrics. Broadcasting Smallville premiered at 9:00 pm on Tuesday, October 16, 2001 on the WB. For the next five seasons the series aired on the WB, moving from Tuesday at 9:00 pm to Wednesday at 8:00 pm and eventually to Thursday at 8:00 pm. In 2006, before the start of Smallvilles sixth season, the WB and UPN merged into The CW and the series continued in its lineup. During its seventh season, the series aired in Canada a day earlier than it did in the United States. In May 2009, Smallvilles ninth season move to Friday at 8:00 pm, considered the "death slot" for television programs. By the end of its tenth season it was the longest-running science-fiction TV show in the United States, breaking the record held by Stargate SG-1. Syndication rights became available in October 2004 when it began airing alongside Gilmore Girls on ABC Family (now Freeform) five nights a week. After the series concluded, TNT began airing episodes on October 3, 2011. Smallville began streaming on Hulu on October 1, 2016. Reception Smallville set a WB record as its highest-rated series debut, with 8.4 million viewers tuned in for the pilot. Its premiere set a WB record for adults aged 18–34 and finished first among viewers aged 12–34, with Warner Bros. president Jordan Levin crediting the series with invigorating the network's Tuesday-night lineup. Smallville appeared on the cover of Entertainment Weekly as one of five new shows to watch. After its first season, the series was sixth on the Parents Television Council's 10-best list of broadcast programs. Levin, acknowledging early concerns that Smallville had become a villain of the week series, said that season two would introduce "smaller mini-arcs over three to four episodes" and become less of a "serialized show". According to Gough, although each succeeding season relied more on season-long story arcs, an occasional villain-of-the-week story was necessary. The villain-of-the-week stories were more harshly criticized by fans of the Superman mythology, but Gough wanted to please them and the WB's general audience (teenagers who preferred villain-of-the-week stories over episodes focusing on the Superman mythology). Christopher Reeve, star of the Superman films, expressed his approval of the show:I was a little bit skeptical when I heard about [Smallville] at first, but I must say the writing, the acting, and the special effects