WWE is reportedly recording its TV programs, including popular shows like RAW and SmackDown, in advance. The primary motivating factor is international travel, but in the case of the SmackDown team at the end of this month, it’s due to the holiday season.
Specifically, WWE will be recording the SmackDown episode for November 29th a week earlier, on November 22nd, in Salt Lake City. This scheduling change is meant to give the talents and staff the entire Thanksgiving day off instead of having to catch a flight later that night or early the next morning for SmackDown.
Wrestling Observer Radio’s latest edition had Dave Meltzer discussing WWE’s future plans. Meltzer stated, “The November 22 SmackDown, which is Salt Lake City, they’re going to be taping two shows, which is the reason is because the 29th, which is the day after Thanksgiving, this would be, I think, the first time they’ve ever done this. They are not going to run a taping that night, so all the talent can spend Thanksgiving night with their families, because if they have a Friday taping, it’s in Salt Lake City, you got to fly out the day before…if it’s not in the vicinity of the northeast, you know where the southeast, because most of the town lives in Florida. But the point of this all is they’re letting people spend all Thanksgiving with their family, and they’re going to get Friday off. The old ownership….they hadn’t had people work Thanksgiving, but they did have people having to fly on Thanksgiving, you know, to get to the Friday tapings. That’s happened for years. So they’re not doing that this year.”