Don’t get used to SmackDown being a three-hour show.
The January 3 episode of SmackDown featured a three hour runtime, an extra hour longer than its normal two-hour format. The show was extended as part of WWE’s agreement with USA Network, which carries the show after RAW moved to Netflix.
Triple H appeared on the Pat McAfee Show on Monday and discussed his preference for the length of RAW and SmackDown. Specifically, he said he finds the “sweet spot” to be somewhere between two and three hours of run time.
“I think it’s by what the content needs to be. It’s no different to me than — look, there are some parameters that we have to hit,” Triple H explained. But it’s no different than [other scripted] episodic television shows. Sometimes there’s an episode that’s 45 minutes, the next week it’s an hour, right? It depends on what you need to put into that show.
“Sometimes when we do three-hour shows there’s a little bit of collapsible stuff in there that’s put in on purpose. It’s a little bit of fat in the show that you can trim off if you need to. But a two-hour show, man, there’s a lot of times when we get done with a two-hour show that I think, ‘I would have liked to put more in there. I would have liked to give more people the opportunity to tell these stories that we didn’t get a chance to do.’ So somewhere between that two and three-hour window, to me, is the sweet spot.”
Triple H confirms SmackDown will be two hours again… but when will it happen?
McAfee pointed out that SmackDown was always a two hour show and RAW was three (since 2012). In recent weeks, that format had been flipped, at least while WWE waited to move RAW to Netflix. Triple H then confirmed SmackDown will go back to a two-hour format.
“Yes. [SmackDown is three hours] for right now, and then it switches back to two,” Triple H added.
Previously, WrestleVotes reported in September 2024 that SmackDown’s three-hour runtime would not be permanent. Triple H did not confirm when SmackDown would go back to two hours. However, WrestleVotes indicated it would take place in June 2025.
