SmackDown Officially Moving To Three Hours In January

There are big changes in store for weekly WWE programming come the new year. Monday Night RAW is officially debuting on Netflix on January 6 for those in the US, beginning a multi billion dollar deal with the streaming service that will also see all other WWE programming air on Netflix for international viewers. 

It was revealed this week that Friday Night SmackDown on January 3 would be airing free on YouTube for those countries who will be seeing all WWE’s shows heading to Netflix, and it has now been further noted that it will be three hours long.  

WWE have officially announced that SmackDown will move to three hours going forwards, starting off with the first episode of 2025. The statement from WWE reads:

“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.”

It was previously noted that WWE were considering delaying SmackDown’s move to three hours for another month, but these talks seem to have ceased based on this announcement. It is believed that SmackDown will be three hours until mid-May, and is currently expected to head back to two hours in length following this time period.

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