FS1 Ends Weekly Production Of WWE Backstage
The Renee Young-hosted show is no longer a weekly affair.
WWE Backstage will no longer be produced on a weekly basis, John Ourand of Sports Business Journal has revealed.
Ourand broke the news last night, stating it was being scaled back while another show, Inside PBC, was being eliminated, leading to double-digit job losses at FS1.
Floridian reporter Jon Alba has come through with further information. He states that FS1 has decided to only air Backstage around "PPVs and big shows," with around 20 people losing their jobs. The cutbacks will have no impact on SmackDown's FOX status, though it looks like the network has scrapped the planned wrestling-specific team it had assembled to produce WWE-related content, ending their search for onscreen talent.
POST Wrestling sourced the following statement from FOX:-
“Today, we announced programming changes designed to better address the needs of our business. As a result, some positions in our production department have been eliminated.”
WWE Backstage has been in existence since 5 November 2019. Hosted by Renee Young and Booker T, it features a rotating cast of regular contributors, including CM Punk, and has continued through the ongoing global health crisis with the talking heads joining the show via webcam. Last week's episode drew the second-highest Backstage viewership ever - a healthy 175,000.