Source: Ron Elkman/Sports Imagery / Getty / WWE
WWE Smackdown’s run on Fox is coming to an end.
Spotted on Variety, the WWE is spinning the block and bringing Smackdown back to the USA Network as part of a new television rights deal it struck.
The weekly wrestling show is on Fox but will body slam its way back on the USA Network beginning October 2024.
Per Variety:
The weekly show currently airs on Fox but will move to its new network home in October 2024 when the Fox deal expires. “Smackdown” originally began airing on Fox in 2019 as part of a five-year deal between the network and WWE. It had previously aired on USA Network from 2016-2019 and had a number of network homes before that, including Syfy, The CW, UPN, and MyNetworkTV.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but sources say the new deal is worth roughly $1.4 billion, up from the $1 billion Fox paid in 2019.
The Deal Will Also Bring Primetime Specials
The website also notes that as part of the new television rights deal, the WWE will produce four primetime specials per year for NBC, which will be the first time the sports entertainment will air anything primetime on the network.
It remains unclear if the specials will feature live wrestling or documentaries like the ones currently airing on A&E. Variety reports the nature of the specials is still being determined according to a person with knowledge of the deal.
Smackdown has been on several networks, including Syfy, The CW, UPN, and MyNetworkTV, after airing on the USA Network from 2016 to 2019.
The show recently got a boost from the return of The Rock and John Cena during a recent stop in Boulder, Colorado. Johnson’s return to Smackdown garnered over 103 million views, making it the most socially vied video of the year the WWE announced.
Photo: Ron Elkman/Sports Imagery / Getty
