A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | CH | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
| Saturday Night's Main Event | |
|---|---|
 Logo, c. 2006 | |
| Genre | Professional wrestling |
| Created by | Vince McMahon |
| Starring | WWE |
| Opening theme | |
| Ending theme |
|
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of episodes | 36 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer | Dick Ebersol |
| Producer | Vince McMahon |
| Running time | 90 minutes |
| Production companies | Titan Sports Inc. (1985–1992) Once a Month Productions, Inc. (1985–1991) WWE (2006–2008) |
| Original release | |
| Network | |
| Release | May 11, 1985 – August 2, 2008 |
| Related | |
| The Main Event | |
Saturday Night's Main Event is an American series of professional wrestling television specials that were produced by WWE (known at the time of launch as the World Wrestling Federation). Premiering in 1985, it originally aired on NBC in the United States in place of Saturday Night Live for weeks when that show did not have new episodes until 1991. Two additional episodes aired on Fox in 1992. It was revived in 2006 for five NBC episodes before ending in 2008. In Canada, it also aired on Citytv and Global Television Network in order to meet simultaneous substitution rights.
At the time of the original airing, it was a rare example of professional wrestling being broadcast on an over-the-air commercial television network after the 1950s. It coincided with and contributed to the apogee of the "second golden age" of professional wrestling in the United States. In a time when weekly programming consisted primarily of established stars dominating enhancement talent, Saturday Night's Main Event was made up almost entirely of star vs. star bouts, including title matches and specialty matches such as steel cage matches, handicap matches, etc. With the exception of “Big Four” pay-per-view events, ‘’Saturday Night’s Main Event’’ served as the equivalent to today’s monthly pay-per-view events. Because it aired in a late night time slot, ‘’Saturday Night’s Main Event’’ always held its main event match in the first hour of the show.
All episodes of Saturday Night's Main Event are available for streaming on Peacock in the United States and the WWE Network elsewhere, with some episodes slightly altered from their original broadcasts. On these platforms, the May 1985 to January 1988 episodes do not have the original opening and closing theme songs. Additionally, sponsored segments that aired as part of the original broadcasts, such as the "Mountain Dew Slam of the Night", have been removed.
In April 2022, WWE revived the Saturday Night's Main Event title for house shows held on Saturday nights.[1]
History
Original run (1985–1992)
Saturday Night's Main Event debuted on May 11, 1985, in the late-night time slot normally assigned to reruns of the NBC sketch comedy Saturday Night Live. Then-SNL executive producer Dick Ebersol had made a deal with WWF owner Vince McMahon to produce the show, after Ebersol had seen the high ratings that two WWF specials drew on MTV in 1984–85: The Brawl to End It All and The War to Settle the Score.[2] Although the show aired infrequently, it did, starting in 1986, settle into a predictable pattern of airdates: New Year's weekend, an episode in late February/early March, an episode in late April/early May, an episode in late September/early October, and Thanksgiving weekend. 1989 and 1990 both offered episodes in July promoted as "Summertime Bonus Editions."
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Saturday Night's Main Event was a tremendous rating success for NBC during its heyday, most notably on the March 14, 1987, show, which drew an 11.6 rating, which to this day remains the highest rating any show has ever done in that time slot. That show was headlined by a battle royal involving Hulk Hogan and André the Giant, who were slated to face each other at WrestleMania III. As Hogan rarely wrestled on the WWF syndicated and cable television shows, Saturday Night's Main Event was the program on free television where most viewers were able to see him in action. The success of Saturday Night's Main Event led to several Friday night prime time specials, known as The Main Event. The first of these, on February 5, 1988, included a WrestleMania III rematch between Hogan and André and drew 33 million viewers and a 15.2 rating, which is still the highest-rated television show in American professional wrestling history. While ratings remained strong through 1990, they began to fall shortly thereafter. NBC, who had just acquired the rights to broadcast NBA games nationwide, now started to lose interest in wrestling, and Saturday Night's Main Event was dropped. Its final NBC airing occurred on April 27, 1991. Fox picked up the show in 1992, but it was only shown twice on that network; on February 8, 1992, and the final Saturday Night's Main Event of the original run was broadcast on November 14, 1992.
For much of its history, Saturday Night's Main Event was hosted by McMahon and Jesse "The Body" Ventura with the occasional use of Bobby Heenan in 1986 and 1987. In 1990, Roddy Piper replaced Ventura as McMahon's broadcast partner when Ventura left the WWF. On the two episodes that aired on Fox, Heenan served as McMahon's partner. From 1985 to 1988, the opening theme song for the NBC version was "Obsession" by Animotion with the closing theme being "Take Me Home" by Phil Collins, and also the beginning of "Take On Me" by a-ha was used for show bumpers. Steve Winwood's "Higher Love" was also used as a closing theme. Starting on the October 4, 1986 edition, each show featured a cold open of short wrestler promos set to a loop of the beginning of Lee Ritenour's "Traveling Music" from the American Flyers soundtrack.[3] In February 1988, the songs were replaced with an original WWF-created instrumental theme. The new instrumental theme was originally used as the theme of the 1987 WWF Slammy Awards. A different opening theme song was used for the February 1992 episode.
Selected episodes were also shown in the UK on ITV in its weekly Saturday lunchtime World Of Sport slot, mainly thanks to the popularity of The British Bulldogs.
Revived run (2006–2008)
When WWE's flagship show, Raw, returned to the USA Network in 2005, Saturday Night's Main Event was revived in 2006 as a "special series" to air on occasion on NBC as part of a deal between WWE and NBCUniversal. The Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brand rosters appeared on the show.
Saturday Night's Main Event returned to NBC on March 18, 2006, in a prime-time slot. The first episode aired on a 1-hour time delay, the second episode aired live, with the three remaining episodes airing at a later date. Since 2009, Saturday Night's Main Event was replaced instead with WrestleMania: The World Television Premiere.