Just days after reports swirled that World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) was looking for a new home forSmackDown, Fox is closing a huge deal worth $1 billion over five years, to bring the weekly wrestling series to the network. The new deal is reportedly “nearing completion,” which will pay the WWE reportedly $205 million a year, three times more than what NBCUniversal is paying WWE to airSmackDownon its current home, the USA Network.Foxis expected to start airing new episodes ofSmackDownin October 2019 on Friday nights, likely occupying the same 8 PM to 10 PM time slot it currently occupies on Tuesday nights on USA.
The potential move ofSmackDownaway from the USA Network and NBCUniversal surfaced on Thursday, when it was revealed that NBCUniversal is now focusing its efforts on retaining the other major weekly series,WWE Raw. Since both shows' deals are up soon, NBCUniversal decided to commit to retainingRaw, with the deal expected to close at roughly three times more thanRaw’s current value. The initial report from Thursday mentioned Fox as a speculated home forSmackDown, and now it seems to have come to fruition.
Sources claim that the WWE actually received an offer that was higher than what Fox was offering, from an unspecified party, and there was an “enthusiastic response” toSmackDownbeing shopped around by other parties. The WWE reportedly chose Fox because executives embraced Fox’s commitment to promoteSmackDownthroughout its sports programming, which includes Major League Baseball and NFL games. Fox is already paying a whopping $1 billion per year for their NFL Sunday package that runs through 2022, and they recently shelled out $3 billion for five seasons ofThursday Night Footballas well.
WWE launched SmackDownbrand in April 1999, first debuting on UPN, until the network’s merger with The WB, withSmackDownairing on The CW starting in 2006. The wrestling program then switched to MyNetworkTV in September 2008, before NBCUniversal picked up theSmackDownrights in 2010. The series moved to the SyFy network from 2010 to 2015, before moving to its current home on the USA Network, which has aired bothRawandSmackDownon the same network since early 2016.
A few months later in May 2016, it was announced thatSmackDownwould air live each week, although it remains unclear if Fox will airSmackDownepisodes live on Friday nights, but it seems likely. This year,SmackDownhas been averaging roughly 2.59 million viewers a week, just below the 3 million viewers thatRawpulls in on average each week. BringingSmackDownto a major network will certainly help broaden awareness, and it will be interesting to see if this deal has any impact on Fox renewing its pact with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), whose deal with Fox also expires at the end of this year.The Hollywood Reporterbroke the news on this massive deal earlier today.
