WWE Friday Night SmackDown will be returning to a two-hour format sooner than initially reported. Dave Meltzer has clarified in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the switch will happen in June rather than the first week of July as previously indicated, with the May 29 episode set to be the final three-hour SmackDown in the current run. June 5 will be the first two-hour episode under the new format.
The third hour on Fridays will not go dark — USA Network will fill it with season two of Everything on the Menu, the show featuring Braun Strowman visiting restaurants across 12 cities, with Mark Henry and Alexa Bliss appearing in two episodes. That program will not hold the slot for the full remainder of the year, with another show expected to take over the hour for approximately three additional months thereafter.
SmackDown’s Current USA Network Deal Structures the Show as Three Hours for Six Months and Two Hours for Six Months
The clarification confirms that the seasonal format is a fixed part of WWE‘s current USA Network deal rather than a year-by-year decision. The contract calls for SmackDown to run three hours for six months of each year and two hours for the other six — making the switch between formats a predictable and recurring element of the show’s structure for the duration of the deal.
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