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WWE Confirms Change To SmackDown

By John Canton • Published Dec 13, 2025 07:50 EST
WWE SmackDown

Change is coming to WWE SmackDown in 2026.

WWE SmackDown launched in August 1999 as a 2-hour show on the UPN Network in the US. It was usually taped on Tuesdays and aired on Thursdays for many years.

The show’s air date changed a few times because it started on Thursdays, then moved to Fridays, then went to Tuesdays for a few years, and settled on Fridays again in October 2019.

There was a significant change to SmackDown in early 2025. For the first six months of 2025, beginning on the January 10th episode, SmackDown changed to a 3-hour show on USA Network in the US and Netflix internationally. The 3-hour format of the blue brand ended on the July 4th episode of SmackDown, and the show returned to a 2-hour format for the rest of the year.

Wrestlevotes reported in mid-November that SmackDown was going back to the three-hour format starting with the January 2nd, 2026 episode from Buffalo.

WWE Promotes 3-Hour SmackDown

During the December 12th edition of SmackDown from Wilkes-Barre, PA, WWE announcers Michael Cole and Corey Graves appeared on camera to promote that SmackDown would be going to 3 hours starting on January 2nd.

USA Network, which airs SmackDown in the US, also posted about it on social media.

It’s not known for sure if SmackDown will go back to two hours in July as it did in 2025. However, WWE’s CCO, Paul “Triple H” Levesque, said in September that SmackDown was three hours long for half the year, suggesting they might return to the two-hour format in July 2026.

“The beautiful thing about us is with the amount of content we do, we’re 52 weeks a year live. So when you talk about a content company that puts out entertainment, we are live Monday nights, 2-3 hours depending on the evening on Netflix. Tuesday nights two hours on CW. Friday nights two hours — and half the year is three hours — on USA.

Once a month, a three hour-plus PLE. Saturday Night’s Main Event quarterly or more per year. That’s all live, that’s all content that we’re putting out on a regular basis.”

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