SmackDown is getting its third hour back, and there is now a date attached.
WrestleVotes, reporting on Fightful Select, went to a source at USA Network and was told WWE is expected to expand Friday Night SmackDown back to three hours from January 2027. The target is January 8, with the usual caveat that dates move. The expectation is that it forms part of USA Network’s new year programming schedule.
None of this is a surprise so much as a confirmation. Dave Meltzer reported in April that the current USA deal is structured around the split, with SmackDown running three hours from January through the end of June and two hours from July through December. The show dropped back to two hours at the start of July, right on schedule.
The pattern is now two years old. SmackDown went to three hours in January 2025 to give USA more inventory after RAW left for Netflix, returned to two hours that July, expanded again on January 2 of this year, and contracted again last month.
January 8th is a Friday, and the first one after New Year’s Day, which falls on a Friday in 2027.
The extra hour has never been universally popular. It gives more of the roster television time, which matters on a brand that has absorbed call-ups including Fatal Influence this year, but the three-hour version has drawn steady complaints that segments and matches stretch to fill the clock rather than because they need the room.
