Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/06/22/fox-sports-issues-statement-on-wwe-backstage/
FOX Sports has undergone changes with several positions being eliminated and it will impact the WWE Backstage studio show.
John Ourand at Sports Business Journal reported Monday that FS1 is scaling back production and that WWE Backstage “will no longer be produced weekly.” Ourand later reported that approximately 20 producers and talent at FS1 lost their jobs. WWE Backstage will only be produced “around big events and pay-per-view matches”.
In a statement to POST Wrestling a FOX Sports representative provided the following statement when asked about the status of WWE Backstage:
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.
Mike Johnson is reporting that there will not be a new episode on Tuesday night and the show appears to be done in its current format for now.
WWE Backstage launched last fall in conjunction with the start of Fox’s five-year deal with WWE for the rights to Friday Night SmackDown. The show was hosted by Renee Young with regular panelists Booker T., Christian, and Paige and a news segment hosted by Ryan Satin from the Pro Wrestling Sheet site.
The series gained a lot of attention when they announced CM Punk would be joining as a guest panelist and was the first wrestling-related project he had worked on since leaving WWE in 2014.
On Monday, Ryan Satin posted the following note thanking those he worked on the show:
Thanks to everyone at @FS1 for the opportunity to work on #WWEBackstage! I had a blast working with @ReneeYoungWWE, @BookerT5x, @RealPaigeWWE, @jacobu, @grossman, @bradweimer and every single person I came into contact with on the show. I learned a lot working with you all. https://t.co/iLnYF0jGyj
— Ryan Satin (@ryansatin) June 22, 2020