WWE is expected to revert Friday Night SmackDown from three hours to two hours in a few weeks, Bodyslam.net reported via Ringside News.
Cody Rhodes, one of the headline names on SmackDown’s roster, is among the performers who will be on the program affected by the impending runtime shift.
The three-hour window was implemented on Jan. 2, 2026, after the program had been trimmed back to two hours in August 2025. Bodyslam.net’s report says the expanded format will not last; the show is expected to drop the extra hour and return to a two-hour slot a few weeks from now, though no specific date has been announced.
The shift matters for the scale of storytelling on SmackDown. The roster that fills those hours includes Cody Rhodes, Rhea Ripley, Charlotte Flair, Alexa Bliss, Tiffany Stratton and Jacob Fatu, and the extra hour has given WWE room to run more segments and matches. Bryan Alvarez has argued the pattern is not permanent, calling the cycle “an annual temporary thing.”
That pattern is visible in the timeline: SmackDown had been three hours until an August 2025 change moved it back to two hours, WWE bumped it to three hours again at the start of the year, and now a reversion is reportedly on the way. WWE has not announced a date for the next runtime change.
The decision also arrives amid several roster and title developments that relied on television time. Trick Williams won the United States Championship at WrestleMania 42 from Sami Zayn, and the faction Fatal Influence—Jacy Jane, Fallon Henley and Lainey Reid—was called up to the main roster, adding new plots that have occupied air time since the three-hour expansion.
Why would WWE expand and then pull back within months? The company has used longer SmackDown episodes to flesh out storylines in advance of major events. Extended shows are useful during a build to WrestleMania because they allow for more matches, promos and program pacing; conversely, the summer months are traditionally slower, with the calendar shifting toward a SummerSlam build later in the season. That scheduling logic helps explain why WWE has oscillated between two and three hours.
The tension is practical: a three-hour show can accommodate more pieces of story at once, but it also requires additional programming commitments from talent and broadcast partners. WWE’s August 2025 cutback and the January 2, 2026 expansion show the company is willing to change runtime based on the moment. Now, with another cut reportedly coming in a few weeks and no firm date published, talent and creative will again have to adapt to a smaller broadcast window.
Given the timeline and the company’s recent behavior, the most likely explanation is operational and seasonal: WWE expands SmackDown for key stretches of the calendar and trims it back when those stretches end. Bryan Alvarez’s description of the move as “an annual temporary thing” fits the pattern of an organization using broadcast hours flexibly to match its event schedule. Expect the reversion to be temporary and tied to WWE’s programming cycle rather than a permanent end to three-hour SmackDown episodes.
