WWE has been taping its television shows, including RAW and SmackDown, ahead of schedule.
The primary reason for this is international travel, but for the SmackDown crew later this month, it’s due to the Thanksgiving holiday.
WWE will pre-tape the November 29th episode of SmackDown a week ahead on November 22 in Salt Lake City, UT.
This adjustment allows talent and staff to have the whole day off on Thanksgiving rather than having to fly out that night or early the next morning for SmackDown.
On the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer discussed WWE’s upcoming plans. He said,
“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.”
