During tonight’s episode of WWE SmackDown, Michael Cole made a significant announcement regarding the future of the blue brand. Beginning January 2, 2026, SmackDown will officially move back to a three-hour format on the USA Network.
This change marks a return to the three-hour runtime, a format the show has experimented with in the past before reverting to the standard two-hour block. The move to expand the broadcast appears to be driven by the USA Network’s reliance on WWE’s reliable viewership. With no other programs on the network capable of drawing comparable numbers, the additional hour allows the network to maximize advertising revenue by capitalizing on its strongest ratings driver.
The expansion adds to an already dense weekly schedule for professional wrestling fans, contributing to ongoing discussions about market oversaturation. With this change, the weekly major wrestling consumption block now looks as follows:
- Mondays: WWE Raw (2.5 hours)
- Tuesdays: WWE NXT (2 hours)
- Wednesdays: AEW Dynamite (2 hours)
- Thursdays: TNA Impact on AXS — soon moving to AMC TV (2 hours)
- Fridays: WWE SmackDown (3 hours)
- Saturdays: AEW Collision (2 hours)
- PPV weekends (4+ hours)
