This was partly the reason I stopped watching Smackdown. The piped in reactions when you can clearly see the crowd just sitting there with a blank stare made the show painful to watch.
Theyve used the same pathetic laughing that Sheamus got for years. Back when DDP was on Smackdown he got the same lame ass laughs. Man no wonder I have wanted to quit watching WWE lately. This stuff is getting ridiculous.
I still haven't seen that MizTV segment as it was edited out of the Australian broadcast for some unknown reason. They've been using the piped in stuff for a long time. I first started noticing it on Smackdown probably about a year ago. It has likely been used for a lot longer than that. I was watching some old Velocity match a little while ago that had piped in reactions too.
For the last month or two I've been noticing that the edited reactions don't even flow or fit well with what is happening sometimes. They appear to be getting sloppy with it. Like someone will punch another guy a few times and for some reason on the 3rd punch the crowd will pop randomly. Also I noticed Wade Barrett hit a power move and got a face type reaction for it. It has always been pretty obvious though, maybe they have just slipped up a couple of times and I'm noticing it more.
The crowd this week seemed pretty dead when there was no fake cheering. I think the Smackdown taping event might be getting too long. They tape Superstars and Saturday Morning Slam before it. And now they tape Main Event as well don't they? That's got to be 4 hours in one night. 3 hours at the very very least.
The piped-in crowd reactions is one of, if not, THE reason why I haven't watched SmackDown in a long time and will probably never watch it again. It's extremely annoying to hear the exact same piped-in noises that have been used since 1999.