A new era of Smackdown kicks off tonight on USA Network as the show expands from two to three hours for the first time ever. Smackdown will be a three-hour broadcast moving forward.
Ever since Smackdown started its weekly episodes in 1999, the running time has always been that of 120 minutes including commercials. That also gave Raw the edge during the Draft episodes, with more Superstars drafted to Raw due to the one hour extra of programming on the red brand.
But now, Raw and Smackdown will be equal in running time and WWE will have to produce eight hours of original programming every week when you take two hours of NXT into equation as well.
Tonight’s Smackdown will also air on YouTube for one week only for those countries who have a WWE Netflix deal. Many WWE TV contracts expired on December 31, 2024 and the Netflix deal officially kicks off on January 6 with Raw. Internationally, Smackdown will be on Netflix starting from next week’s broadcast, as will NXT.
