WWE Friday Night SmackDown will remain a three-hour show for a couple more months before switching back to two hours — and Dave Meltzer has revealed that this seasonal format is actually built directly into WWE’s current USA Network contract rather than being a year-by-year decision.
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Meltzer explained that the structure of SmackDown’s USA Network deal dictates three hours for the first half of each year and two hours from July 1 through December 31 for the foreseeable future. “It’s either the last week of June or the first week of July. The contract that they have signed now is January until the end of June would be three hours. Then 1st July to the end of December would be two hours. So that’s the way the deal is structured right now. For the foreseeable future, probably for the next four years,” Meltzer said.
WWE SmackDown has aired on USA Network since September 2024 as part of a five-year deal worth $1.4 billion. The show was three hours for the first half of 2025 before moving to two hours for the second half, and the same pattern is now being followed in 2026. One contributing factor in the switch back to two hours this summer is USA Network’s programming returning to the 10 PM ET timeslot, including season two of Everything on the Menu starring Braun Strowman, due in early summer.
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