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What's the story?
WWE SmackDown Live will officially move to its new home, FOX Sports, on Friday, October 4th, and new details have emerged regarding the presentation of the show on FOX, as well as how many episodes FOX intends to air each year.
According to The Wrestling Observer Newsletter, following a recent FOX executive summit meeting, it was decided that WWE SmackDown Live will be presented more like a sports product in order to fit in with FOX's sports package which includes the NFL.
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When the announcement was first made that WWE is moving SmackDown Live to FOX in October, speculation was rampant regarding how the show would look and feel compared to Monday Night Raw.
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With SmackDown airing on FOX and Raw remaining on USA Network, viewers anticipate Raw and SmackDown will be presented differently, and it appears that will indeed be the case. In addition to the October 4th episode of SmackDown Live airing on FOX for the first time, the show is also likely to be the recently announced 20th anniversary special.
The heart of the matter
The most recent edition of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that FOX intends to promote SmackDown Live as "a choreographed sports presentation as part of a Thursday through Sunday sports block" which will feature The NFL on Thursdays and Sundays, WWE on Fridays, and college football on Saturdays. The report furthers FOX wants everyone on the network to push SmackDown Live as if it's a legitimate sport, but not necessarily that the outcomes are real.
Additionally, FOX intends to air 51 episodes of WWE SmackDown Live per year, with the show only being preempted for Major League Baseball's World Series which airs in November.
What's next?
The Observer report also notes that at the recent summit meeting FOX executives pushed that big surprises will be taking place on the October 4th SmackDown Live premiere, and FOX will begin promoting the premiere, which is also believed to be the 20th-anniversary special episode, sometime in September.
What would you like to see take place on SmackDown Live's big FOX premiere? Let us know in the comment section!
