WWE has confirmed that next week’s episode of SmackDown will move networks.
The company did so during this week’s SmackDown broadcast as it was noted that the October 23 episode will air on FOX Sports 1. The reason for this change is due to FOX airing the World Series in SmackDown’s normal timeslot. The show will still air at 8 p.m. ET.
The teams in the World Series are currently unknown, but it will be Game 3 of the series. It’ll either be the winners of Tampa Bay Rays and Houston Astros as they continue to battle in the ALCS as well as Los Angeles Dodgers and Atlanta Braves, which square off in the NLCS.
This is notable due to the viewership number that SmackDown did when it aired on FS1 last year.
That show was the lowest-rated episode of SmackDown of 2019 and in recent memory. It did 888,000 viewers and .27 in the 18-49 demo. The show had to go up against an MLB World Series game on FOX that averaged 12.220 million viewers.
There are also some big changes while trying to complete these two shows. Last year’s episode featured appearances by Brock Lesnar, Cain Velasquez, Hulk Hogan, and Ric Flair.
This year’s show will serve as the go-home show of SmackDown for the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view event.
WWE Friday Night SmackDown Viewership Sees Big Decline On FS1