WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event is coming back to primetime television. The professional wrestling series, which has aired intermittently since 1985, returns to broadcast for the first time since 2008 on Dec. 14 at 8 p.m. ET.
WWE announced Saturday Night’s Main Event’s revival on Tuesday. It’s the first quarterly primetime special airing on NBC and Peacock. The pro wrestling promotion will air four primetime specials annually as part of WWE’s new five-year domestic media rights partnership with NBCUniversal, which began last Friday when SmackDown aired on USA Network.
The Dec. 14 card takes place at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Long Island, New York, the site of the inaugural Saturday Night’s Main Event.
Saturday Night’s Main Event first aired on NBC between 1985 and 1991 before moving to Fox in 1992. It was revived between 2006 and 2008 on NBC, and was most recently used for non-televised house shows on Saturdays.
The March 14, 1987 episode of Saturday Night’s Main Event on NBC remains the highest rating any show has done in that time slot. A battle royal featuring Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant, preceding their legendary encounter at WrestleMania III, drew an 11.6 rating. Saturday Night’s Main Event 1985 premiere was headlined by Hogan vs. “Cowboy” Bob Orton — Randy Orton’s father — for the WWF world heavyweight championship. Hogan headlined the first 10 Saturday Night’s Main Events cards.
The 2006 to 2008 run had highs and lows. The first two cards of the first revival were headlined by Shane McMahon vs. Shawn Michaels in a street fight and Edge vs. John Cena for the WWE title, respectively. The 2007 cards bizarrely featured Doink the Clown in a six-man tag team match and a 44-second boxing match between Evander Holyfield and Matt Hardy.
