Major SmackDown Change Not Making WWE More Money
More light has been shed on the ongoing saga with SmackDown and whether or not the WWE show will continue permanently at 3 hours.
With Raw moving to Netflix, WWE decided to make SmackDown a three-hour show starting with the January 3, 2025, edition. For its entire run on Fox from 2019 to late 2024, SmackDown had been a two-hour show, giving wrestling fans one more hour of content to keep up with every week in a very saturated market.
But it was reported that the switch would only be temporary, with SmackDown moving back to being two hours on June 6. However, one report suggested WWE has scrapped that idea with the blue brand set to remain at three hours for the foreseeable future.
WWE SmackDown Ratings Make 3 Hours Worth It For USA
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer noted that the idea to move SmackDown back to two hours might have been scrapped by the USA Network, as the show’s ratings do well for the station:
[It’s permanent] until USA changes the idea. It’s 3 hours until they change it. Originally, it was gonna stop in June, and USA had a show they wanted to put on from 10 pm to 11 pm, piggybacking off SmackDown. For whatever reason, they made the call that it wasn’t worth it.
For their ratings, it’s not worth it, I think they realised hour three is gonna do triple of whatever they’re gonna put on in that show. SmackDown is so far and away the biggest show on that station. They’re not making the move for the foreseeable future, whatever that means.
When asked if WWE was making more money as a result of more content, Meltzer noted that he didn’t believe that was the case:
I guess the way they signed the contract, they must have given USA the option, because if they were making more money on the deal, it absolutely would have been said at the investor call, and we would have seen the difference in the money. The money has not changed because if it was we’d have been told.
John Cena and Ron Killings are set to face off on the June 20th edition of SmackDown, where they will tie an obscure company record.
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