WWE Says SmackDown Broadcast Will Be Expanded to 3 Hours Starting in 2025

WWE announced that SmackDown will expand to three hours beginning with its January 3, 2025 episode live from Phoenix. It will continue to air Friday evenings on USA Network.

SmackDown has been a two-hour show since making its debut on Thursday, April 29, 1999. Now it’s making the move to three hours, which Raw did beginning with its 1,000th episode in 2012. Raw since slid back to two hours on Oct. 7.

SmackDown’s show length hasn’t changed over the years, but it’s switched days and networks multiple times. It’s aired on Fridays since the show moved to Fox in Oct. 2019. The show then moved to USA Network on Sept. 13.

So going from two to three hours is a big move for SmackDown. Raw, of course, is embarking on a massive change soon with the switch to Netflix beginning Monday, Jan. 6, 2025 from Inglewood, California’s Intuit Dome.

Dave Meltzer of Wrestler Observer Radio (h/t Sean Rueter of Cageside Seats) previously reported in September that Raw will move back from two to three hours: “It’s a three-hour show when they move back to Netflix… Yeah, I got it confirmed a few minutes ago… The basic situation is that — it was a USA Network call, not a WWE call.”

Mike Johnson of PW Insider reported that they could “lock down a definitive yes or no” on whether Raw is moving to three hours. Either way, WWE has not confirmed the show time on Netflix yet.

WWE programming also saw a seismic shift with the return of Saturday Night’s Main Event for the first time since 2008. Last Saturday, Cody Rhodes successfully defended his Undisputed WWE Championship against Kevin Owens to cap that card.

It’ll be interesting to see how the blue brand fares with the move to three hours, which of course coincides with the beginning of the Road to WrestleMania XLI, which will take place in Las Vegas on April 19 and 20.