{"id":62042,"date":"2018-06-26T16:50:44","date_gmt":"2018-06-26T21:50:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=62042"},"modified":"2018-06-26T17:57:21","modified_gmt":"2018-06-26T22:57:21","slug":"wwe-officially-announces-smackdown-lives-move-to-fox-broadcast-network-starting-in-october-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2018\/06\/26\/wwe-officially-announces-smackdown-lives-move-to-fox-broadcast-network-starting-in-october-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"WWE officially announces Smackdown Live&#8217;s move to Fox broadcast network starting in October 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-2903544800\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>WWE made it official today that WWE Smackdown Live will move to Fox in October 2019 when the current deal expires. The press release states the deal with Fox is for five years and Smackdown will continue to be two hours live every week.<\/p>\n<p>The following is the press release including a quote from Vince McMahon.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><b>FOX SPORTS BECOMES NEW HOME OF SMACKDOWN<\/b><b> LIVE<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><b>NEW YORK and STAMFORD, Conn., June 26, 2018<\/b> \u2013 For the first time, every Friday night beginning October 4, 2019, FOX broadcast network will air WWE\u2019s flagship program <i>SmackDown<\/i> <i>Live<\/i> as part of a new five-year agreement with FOX Sports. The weekly, two-hour live event will air 52 weeks a year and captivate fans with a unique combination of edge-of-your-seat action, unpredictable drama and world-class athleticism. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt FOX we are thrilled to welcome WWE to the FOX Sports family and bring <i>SmackDown Live<\/i> to broadcast television,\u201d said Eric Shanks, President, COO and Executive Producer FOX Sports. \u201cWe are huge fans and know that together FOX Sports will be the leader in live events for the foreseeable future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWWE and FOX are a perfect match,\u201d said Vince McMahon, WWE Chairman &amp; CEO. \u201cMoving <i>SmackDown Live<\/i> to broadcast TV and having the ability to leverage FOX\u2019s extensive portfolio of world-class sporting events will expand the reach of our flagship programming.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><i>SmackDown Live<\/i> is a consistent winner on television, currently averaging<sup>1<\/sup> 1.3M P18-49, 1.3M P25-54 and 3M total viewers P2+.<\/p>\n<p>On air for almost 20 years and nearly 1,000 episodes, <i>SmackDown Live <\/i>is the second-longest running weekly episodic cable television show in U.S. primetime history, only behind <i>Monday Night Raw<\/i>\u00ae. <i>SmackDown Live <\/i>is currently among the most-watched, regularly scheduled programs on primetime cable and delivers more viewers in primetime than any cable network in the U.S. (2.9 million average viewers).<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i>SmackDown<\/i> <i>Live<\/i> has also helped launch the careers of pop-culture icons including Dwayne \u201cThe Rock\u201d Johnson, John Cena, Undertaker, Triple H, \u201cStone Cold\u201d Steve Austin and The Bella Twins.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-2289949461\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>NOW CHECK OUT THIS RELATED STORY:<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2018\/06\/05\/miz-comments-on-wwes-new-mega-deal-with-fox-to-acquire-rights-to-smackdown-takes-credit-tongue-in-cheek-wants-to-become-face-of-brand-by-2019\/\">Miz comments on WWE\u2019s new mega-deal with Fox to acquire rights to Smackdown, takes credit (tongue-in-cheek), wants to become Face of Brand by 2019<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-2060628048\"><div id=\"pwtor-1183123305\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>WWE made it official today that WWE Smackdown Live will move to Fox in October 2019 when the current deal expires. The press release states the deal with Fox is for five years and Smackdown <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2018\/06\/26\/wwe-officially-announces-smackdown-lives-move-to-fox-broadcast-network-starting-in-october-2019\/\" title=\"WWE officially announces Smackdown Live&#8217;s move to Fox broadcast network starting in October 2019\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-prowrestlingnews","category-news_wwe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2017\/03\/SmackdownStage_WK3x2_600.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62042"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62047,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62042\/revisions\/62047"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}