UFL to Potentially Play Friday Nights Starting in 2025
During the fall, WWE’s Smackdown was ratings booster on Friday nights for Fox. It appears the UFL could be taking over prime time on Friday nights starting next year.
Deadline reported Monday that SmackDown will no longer be broadcast during that time slot starting this fall. Instead, the network will have other sporting events with college football and basketball as well as the UFL. Those games will start at 8 pm EST.
This season, the UFL has stayed with the format of playing on Saturdays and Sundays. It’s not uncommon for spring football to be played outside of those days. Last season, the XFL played a few games on Thursday and Friday. The USFL did play on Monday night once in 2022, but that was because of bad weather delaying one of the games.
Many think this could lead to the possibility of expanding the UFL to 10 teams as two teams could play each other every Friday and have the other teams play on Saturday and Sunday. While that part remains to be seen, getting the UFL on prime time is always a plus as the league tries to be on national television as much as possible.
SmackDown had been a Friday mainstay for Fox for the last five years.
Week 8 of the UFL season kicks off with the Memphis Showboats traveling to Detroit to play the Michigan Panthers on Saturday.
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ANTHONY MILLER