WWE Set to Make HUGE Change From August 2025 to SmackDown, Show Set to Return to Two-hour Format - Report

When WWE announced a five-year deal with USA Network for their show WWE SmackDown that is worth $1.4 billion from September 2024, the move also resulted in the run time of the show changing. Since it came about in 1999, it had by and large been a two hour show but it was now going to be a three-hour show - a direct result of Netflix acquiring the rights to WWE Raw, which used to be a three-hour show. 

The move was always going to be a temporary one, as reports suggested that the new run time would be there only till June 2025, but there has been no change in the duration as of now. 

However, that could change in the middle of August 2025. 

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Why Will SmackDown's Run Time Change?

The USA Network has announced the premier of a new show by the name of ‘The Rainmaker’. The show is set to premier from August 15, which happens to be a Friday. 

And the time that it has been set to air is from 10 PM to 11 PM ET, which just so happens to be the third hour of SmackDown as of this time. 

The main reason the third hour of SmackDown continued for as long as it did was because USA was happy with the ratings of the third hour. 

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A Brief Look at SmackDown's History

SmackDown as a show started out in 1999 and was meant to supplement Raw, but after WWE's acquisition of WCW it ended up becoming a proper second brand. 

WWE introduced a brand split, with rosters split between Raw and SmackDown. This continued until the mid-2000s before the brand split was once again revived in 2016. 

However, the three-hour run time was exclusive to Raw at one point. SmackDown only got it due to the move of the flagship show to Netflix.