The first hour of Monday Night Raw on Christmas Day and the first hour of Smackdown Live on New Year’s Day will be airing commercial-free.
Presenting a commercial-free broadcast will keep viewers from switching channels during breaks and is another marketing tool to bring in more eyeballs on a day that typically viewership isn’t as strong. This will be the first time that WWE will present live Raw and Smackdown shows on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.
WWE has done two commercial-free Raws in the past, and it was not just for the first hour, but all of them. The first one was on June 22, 2009 in Green Bay, Wisconsin and it was the episode that Donald Trump took over the show as the new owner of Raw. The second one was on May 17, 2010 from Toronto, Canada, with astronaut Buzz Aldrin as the guest star.
