Smackdown is moving to USA Network a few weeks prior than
anticipated with the network announcing that the blue brand
will move over starting September 13.

September 13 is a Friday so that means the show will keep
its Friday time slot despite it’s a dreaded slot for
television at that time.

NBCUniversal won the rights for Smackdown with a new $1.4
billion deal. FOX, which has been airing the show since
2019, did not bid to keep it even though it’s often #1 on
the charts in the 18-49 demo.

USA Network will air both Raw and Smackdown in Q4 2024 as
they also agreed to a $25 million deal to air Raw for the
final three months of the year before they move to Netflix.
The sum amounts to $41 million less than what NBCU is
currently paying for Raw every quarter in this current deal.

USA Network also lost NXT which is now moving to The CW in
October.