Raw And Smackdown’s Christmas Shows Get Commercial Free First Hours
WWE issued Fightful the following, announcing that the first hour of next week's Raw and Smackdown will air commercial free.
Celebrate the holidays with WWE as USA Network airs the first hour of both Monday Night Raw® and SmackDown Live® commercial-free this Monday, December 25 at 8/7c and Tuesday, December 26 at 8/7c. This also marks the first time that USA Network will air Raw live on Christmas.
Raw and SmackDown Live are the #1 and #2 longest running weekly episodic programs in U.S. primetime TV history and two of the most-watched, regularly scheduled programs on cable, airing live every Monday and Tuesday nights on USA.
Averaging more viewers than any cable network in primetime, WWE programming is among the most socially active shows on TV, trending on Twitter 52 weeks per year. Raw and SmackDown Live have aired more original episodes than some of the most popular television series of all time, including The Simpsons, Gunsmoke, Lassie and Monday Night Football.
The 25th anniversary of Raw will emanate from Barclays Center and Manhattan Center in New York City on Monday, January 22, 2018, and air live on USA Network at 8/7c. WWE Superstars from both Monday Night Raw and SmackDown® Live will be at Barclays Center, while the event at Manhattan Center, the site of the first episode of Raw in 1993, will feature both WWE Superstars competing, and special appearances by WWE Legends Undertaker®, Shawn Michaels® and Kevin Nash®, amongst others.
