In a report by Deadline, FOX is revealing their replacement for Friday Night Smackdown. The new Friday night slot will be filled with live sports, including UFL games in 2025. Their release of the fall 2024 schedule is taking place today in New York City at 4pm at the Fox Manhattan Center as part of their Upfronts.
Deadline got a preview and this is what they said
"for the first time in five years, there is no WWE SmackDown on Fridays as the network is replacing the departing wrestling franchise with sports coverage of college football and basketball as well as UFL."
In their write up they mention this as a fall lineup change. However the UFL is not going up against the NFL in this fall. What they meant was college football in the fall, that transitions to college basketball from November to March, then the United Football league from March to June.
Our sources have been talking about a Friday night TV slot for the UFL for some time. FOX wants to make Friday night viewing of sports like Monday night is for football.
We have also heard from sources that the league is playing with the idea of changing the start of the season. Potentially moving it up a few weeks into early March vs this seasons March 30th start date. This change would depend on how the next couple of weeks TV ratings go.
There is a lot of changes taking place in the sports TV viewing world over the next year. It is good to see the United Football League part of the talk.
With the success of the 2024 UFL season in terms of ratings, advertisers can start planning their ads spend now for the UFL 2025 season. Something they could not do in 2024 because at this time last year, the merger was not even planned yet.