WWE SmackDown Moving To Three Hours In January

In a move that was widely expected, WWE SmackDown is moving to three hours after the holidays.

WWE SmackDown / WWE

After months of speculation that the shift would be happening, WWE has announced that SmackDown will be moving to 3 hours in the new year.

The 'Where to Watch' section of WWE's website says the following when it comes the Blue Brand:

"SmackDown continues to air on USA Network every Friday night at 8/7 C in the U.S. At the start of 2025, SmackDown will expand to three hours starting with the Jan. 3 episode from Phoenix, Arizona."

- WWE.com

TONIGHT on #SmackDown

Naomi will step in for the injured @Jade_Cargill to help @BiancaBelairWWE defend the WWE Women's Tag
Team Championship against @CandiceLeRae & WWE Women's Champion Nia Jax!

📺 8/7c on @USANetwork pic.twitter.com/2a1KtYpnVH

— WWE (@WWE) December 20, 2024

Monday Night Raw will be leaving the USA Network in January when WWE's flagship show debuts on Netflix. Throughout much of its tenure on USA, Raw was a three hour program. It would make sense that the network would want to recoup that lost hour of ad revenue.

It was only recently that Raw dropped down to two hours as part of a brief extension to bridge a gap created by the start and end dates of the respective media rights deals.

At this time it's still unclear whether Raw will be moving back to three hours, but the separation from linear television does give WWE the option of being more flexible with the program's format.

WWE Chief Content Officer Paul 'Triple H' Levesque has often joked that we'll all find out how long the show is going to be on January 6 when it debuts.

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