Jim Ross, the former WWE commentator on the latest edition of Grilling JR podcast, opened up on how WWE’s promotion of the Friday Night SmackDown on FOX could differ if the COVID-19 pandemic would not have taken place.
Jim Ross explains how FOX would have promoted WWE SmackDown
WWE SmackDown airs on FOX on Friday Nights, while Football airs on Sundays. Jim Ross spoke about WWE SmackDown’s promotion by FOX on Sundays while the NFL games take place.
He explained that if COVID-19 had not taken place then FOX would have put more efforts on the promotion to attract more viewers.
Moreover, the Senior Vice President of FOX is fond of wrestling and is an experienced person, who has been there for two decades. Thus, that helps in boosting up the promotion immensely.
Jim Ross said, “You notice how FOX promotes Smackdown inside an NFL broadcast. If the COVID wasn’t here, you could bet your ass there would be a lot of on-site sightings of WWE guys on NFL games. They do it right, that’s largely because the Senior VP loves wrestling. He’s been at FOX for over 20 years, and he knows how to promote.”
WWE and FOX had penned down a five-year deal in 2018. It was worth $205 million per annum and it worth $1.25 billion in total. The deal had been fruitful also because of WWE advertisements of NFL games.
It's a new era. Welcome to WWE on FOX. pic.twitter.com/Vv3HgH8CzB
— WWE on FOX (@WWEonFOX) September 18, 2019
SmackDown also brought sixth-largest cable audience in television with an average of 2.59 million viewers a week in 2018.
Major businesses were affected all across the globe due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic.
WWE too had to face this but they were not affected as much because reportedly they had the reserves to overcome the financial problems.
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However, WWE had released more than 30 wrestlers and staffs amid COVID-19 pandemic.
Vince McMahon, the WWE Chairman also had to shut down his American Football League, the XFL. The company also cancelled many live events and shows were held behind closed doors.
But, despite all these, there was a steep rise in income, which came from the TV deals with FOX network and other deals.
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