| Saturday Night's Main Event | |
|---|---|
 Logo for 2024 revival | |
| Genre | Professional wrestling |
| Created by | Vince McMahon |
| Presented by |
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| Starring | Raw roster SmackDown roster |
| Opening theme | |
| Ending theme |
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| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of episodes | 36 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Dick Ebersol Paul Levesque Lee Fitting |
| Producer | Vince McMahon |
| Running time | 60 minutes (original run and first revived run) 120 minutes (second revived run) |
| Production companies | Titan Sports Inc. (1985–1992) Once a Month Productions, Inc. (1985–1991) WWE (2006–2008, 2024–present) |
| Original release | |
| Network | NBC |
| Release | May 11, 1985 – April 27, 1991 |
| Network | Fox |
| Release | February 8 – November 14, 1992 |
| Network | NBC |
| Release | March 18, 2006 – August 2, 2008 |
| Network | NBC Peacock |
| Related | |
| WWE Raw WWE NXT WWE SmackDown The Main Event | |
| Infobox instructions (only shown in preview) | |
Saturday Night's Main Event is a series of American professional wrestling television specials produced by WWE (originally the World Wrestling Federation or WWF). It was originally broadcast by NBC from 1985 to 1992, replacing Saturday Night Live in its late night timeslot on an occasional basis throughout the year.
At a time when weekly wrestling programs typically consisted primarily of squash matches featuring established stars dominating enhancement talent, Saturday Night's Main Event consisted almost entirely of star vs. star matches rarely seen on television, including title defenses and specialty matches. It coincided with and contributed to the apogee of the "second golden age" of professional wrestling in the United States; bolstered by regular in-ring appearances by WWF stars such as Hulk Hogan, Saturday Night's Main Event drew large audiences for much of its run, while a spin-off simply titled The Main Event aired annually on a Friday night in February beginning in 1988. Ratings began to fall in the 1990s, leading to NBC dropping the specials in 1991. In 1992, the WWF moved Saturday Night's Main Event to Fox, which aired two editions of the special on the network before being discontinued.
In 2006, Saturday Night's Main Event was briefly revived as a series of prime time specials on NBC, as part of WWE's agreement with NBC Universal to air its weekly program Raw on USA Network. Five episodes aired as part of the revived run before it was discontinued in 2008. In April 2022, WWE repurposed the Saturday Night's Main Event title for house shows held on Saturday nights.[2] In September 2024, as part of an agreement moving WWE SmackDown from Fox to USA, WWE announced that it would revive Saturday Night's Main Event on NBC once again.
- ^ "Greg Gagne Thinks WWE Will Use Jesse Ventura For NBC Saturday Night Shows". 411MANIA. Retrieved September 19, 2024.
- ^ "WWE REBRANDING MORE LIVE EVENTS | PWInsider.com". www.pwinsider.com. Archived from the original on September 27, 2022. Retrieved September 4, 2022.