The new Fox-WWE deal that kicks off in October 2019 is a game changer for WWE because of the massive amount of money being paid to them and because of doors that could be opened for them for additional programming.
If Fox is comfortable with adding more wrestling programming, then it’s possible that we could see live specials. The Saturday Night Main Event specials did big ratings for NBC in 1980’s but the show fizzled by the early 90’s when it moved to Fox. The show was brought back to NBC in 2006 as part of their deal with NBCUniversal but the ratings did not do so well and it was eventually dropped.
So it remains to be seen if Fox wants to go in that direction. On Sunday’s Wrestling Observer Radio, a reader asked Dave Meltzer if he has heard any rumors about Saturday Night’s Main Event returning to Fox.
Meltzer said that he asked folks at the Fox Network and at WWE and he was told no. Furthermore, in regards to NXT programming airing on Fox Sports 1, he was told that there was no chance of that happening.
Could Fox decide on adding SNME or NXT in the future? Sure, anything is possible but it doesn’t look like that is in their plans right now. We are over a year away from Smackdown starting on FOX so they might feel it’s too early to consider additional wrestling programming.
However, WWE Co-President Michelle Wilson said last week that there have been talks with Fox about additional content on FS1 but not for in-ring content. Wilson indicated that the content on FS1 being discussed is for a studio show with a recap of the WWE news from the past week.
The WWE-Fox deal will run for 5 years so there are many options on the table if the ratings are good.
