It airs live every Friday at 8 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on USA Network in the United States, and in most international markets on Netflix.

[9] The show then moved to the sibling USA Network on January 7, 2016,[10][11][12] and later that year, beginning on July 19, SmackDown began broadcasting live on Tuesday nights.

The WWE Network ceased operations in the United States on April 4, 2021, with all content moved to Peacock which now has all previous episodes of SmackDown.

would have separate rosters of performers that are exclusive to their respective programs and events, and be positioned in-universe as competing "brands" (in a manner reminiscent of athletic conferences).

[18] In January 2006, CBS Corporation and Warner Bros. Entertainment announced that UPN and The WB would merge to form a new network known as The CW that fall.

[20] Retaining its previous Friday-night time slot, the season premiere of SmackDown on MyNetworkTV was the highest-rated program in that night on the network, with 3.2 million viewers.

[22] On October 1, 2010, as part of a new broadcast deal with NBC Universal, SmackDown moved to Syfy, retaining its Friday night timeslot.

[33] On April 10, 2018, SmackDown Commissioner Shane McMahon announced that Daniel Bryan was back as a full-time WWE wrestler and named Paige the new general manager.

[38][39] However, amid a competitive bidding situation, NBCUniversal focused its efforts on renewing Raw, freeing up Fox to pursue SmackDown.

[40] In particular, Fox promised a larger amount of promotion for SmackDown during its sports programming, as well as a WWE-oriented studio show (WWE Backstage) on FS1.

The ensuing episode also featured Triple H as a guest commentator, and an encore presentation of the Elimination Chamber match for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship from the titular pay-per-view the previous Sunday.

[47][48] In one instance in October 2019 due to the World Series, an hour-long version of the episode aired on Fox the following Sunday afternoon.

[51] In 2024, the program aired episodes from other countries for the first time in conjunction with other WWE PPV's, including May 3 for Backlash France (LDLC Arena in Décines-Charpieu, Lyon, France), May 24 for King and Queen of the Ring (Jeddah Super Dome in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia),[52] and August 31 for Bash in Berlin (Uber Arena in Berlin, Germany).

[53] On September 21, 2023, it was announced that SmackDown would return to USA Network in October 2024, following the expiration of WWE's contract with Fox.

[58][59] As Netflix acquired the rights to WWE programming outside of the United States, and Raw globally starting January 2025, that episode of SmackDown is expected to be streamed on YouTube internationally in the interim.

The show began broadcasting in HD beginning with the January 25, 2008 episode of SmackDown, where a new set (which became universal for all WWE weekly programming) debuted.

Prior to November 2, 2012, SmackDown opened with "Know Your Enemy" by Green Day while "Hangman" by Rev Theory served as the secondary theme song.

On March 26, 2015, WWE added a small LED board to the left side of the ring on SmackDown, similar to Raw.

Throughout the month of October 2015, the WWE broadcast table, entrance ramp, and ring skirts were co-branded with Susan G. Komen for the cure of breast cancer.

All SmackDown broadcasts were filmed behind closed doors with no in-person spectators, initially from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, before returning to an arena setting with a closed set known as the "ThunderDome"—which featured a larger-scale production more in line with its PPV shows, but with a virtual audience displayed on a grandstand constructed from video boards.

[44][45][67] With the return to live shows in July 2021, a new universal stage was adopted by both SmackDown and Raw, with a high-resolution LED screen, and increasing use of augmented reality graphics for the television production.

These include tributes to various professional wrestlers who have recently died or retired from actively performing, and episodes commemorating various show milestones or anniversaries.

Wrestlers are portrayed as heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that build tension and culminate in a wrestling match.

Additional commentary has been provided by Tazz, Jim Ross, Josh Mathews, Mauro Ranallo, Tom Phillips and others since its creation.

[80][82][83][84] In Canada, SmackDown was previously aired on Sportsnet 360 (SN360, formerly known as The Score), as part of a long term deal with Rogers Sports & Media.

When SmackDown transitioned to a live format in July 2016, the program returned to airing in simulcast with the U.S. broadcast, initially on Tuesdays and then moving back to Fridays in October 2019.

Despite the move to Fox (which is widely carried on Canadian television providers) in 2019, Rogers did not elect to simulcast SmackDown on its broadcast network Citytv to invoke potential simsub rights.

As Rogers also held the rights to National Hockey League broadcasts, the program was occasionally pre-empted to OLN (now Bravo) during the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Select archived episodes are available for streaming on Netflix under the title SmackDown Vault, with live broadcasts beginning on January 10.

[115] On September 24, 2012, Hulu signed a multi-year deal with WWE to stream all of the company's TV shows and some of its web series, which includes SmackDown.