New details on when WWE is planning to make SmackDown 3 hours (Exclusive)
It looks like Friday Night SmackDown is going to be three hours in 2025, but not for the entirety of the calendar year. A new report has emerged about the surprising plans to turn Friday nights into three hours.
In a move that some fans may have anticipated, WWE looks like they're set to finally turn SmackDown into a three-hour show. This may not be a particularly popular decision, but it will mean a more lucrative broadcast deal for WWE, with the USA Network getting the broadcasting rights for the blue brand back after five years.
In the latest episode of WrestleVotes Radio exclusively on Backstage Pass, JoeyVotes and TC revealed that between January 3rd and mid-May 2025, SmackDown will be a three-hour show.
There are no details about why the period of three hours is only for four months, but it's going to be interesting to see how it plays out. This essentially means that WrestleMania season will have three hours of the blue brand every week.
One can imagine that such a deal will only make Triple H and WWE double down on smaller premium live event cards (for non-Big-Five shows) as the focus shifts to having big TV matches.
Why did WWE RAW revert to two hours like SmackDown?
What's going to be surprising if this report comes to fruition is that for one week only, RAW will be two hours, while SmackDown will be three. But why has WWE turned the red brand into a two-hour show again?
According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the main reason why WWE moved RAW to two hours again was because their original deal with the USA Network was only until September 2024. This left a three-month gap before the Netflix deal and an extension was signed, but the deal stated that Monday Night Show would be two hours until the move to the streaming platform.
It's safe to assume that WWE will have free reign over broadcast time on Netflix, with the three-hour format expected. Many fans have pointed out that the live three-hour format works well for RAW despite all the complaints over the years.
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