Just a few weeks into WWE’s new television deal with FOX, they will face a preemption with SmackDown Live in October.
The show will be preempted from its normal timeslot on FOX on Friday, October 25th by MLB for Game 3 of the World Series. This was expected as SmackDown will air 51 weeks per year in its normal timeslot starting October 4th.
What’s not known is how WWE will handle the shift in time changes. Whether SmackDown Live will air after the World Series game or be shifted to air on FOX Sports 1 that week remains to be seen.
Either way, ratings will take a hit. If it airs on FS1 then it will lead to a dramatic drop in viewership due to FS1 being in lesser homes than FOX.
WWE has been hyping the move to FOX as a game-changer due to the exposure that they will get not only with it being on a network that’s in more homes than the USA Network but also because of the advertising that FOX plans to do. FOX is currently in 35% more homes than USA Network.
The touring schedule for the SmackDown Live roster appears to be finalized as PWinsider.com reports that starting in the first week of October, the crew will start their loop with a live Friday broadcast on FOX. Then they’ll do live events on Saturdays and Sundays, with the exception for pay-per-view events taking place on Sundays.
The RAW touring schedule will not be changed as they will stick with live events being held on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Of course Monday Night RAW will remain being held.
