It was announced this week that WWE would debut a new tournament called Mixed Match Challenge, which will air on Facebook. The debut episode will air Tuesday, January 16 at 10 p.m. ET on Facebook, immediately after Smackdown ends.
What this means for 205 Live is the show will no longer air on Tuesdays on WWE Network in its usual 10 p.m. timeslot, where it has been a fixture during its one-year run, even displacing Talking Smack, which was moved after 205 Live until it was ultimately axed as a weekly show. (We still miss it.)
The new start time for 205 Live is expected to be at around 10:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, after the Mixed Match Challenge show concludes, according to PWInsider. That will be the case for the 12 weeks that Mixed Match Challenge will air, and then 205 Live is expected to return to its usual time.
As for the taping schedule for 205 Live, the presence of Mixed Match Challenge likely also means that 205 Live will be taped prior to Smackdown. When WWE had the ECW brand a decade ago, they used to tape that weekly show before Smackdown, so this is nothing new for WWE. (And remember, they still tape Main Event every week, too.)
Speaking of 205 Live, they are doing their first three house shows in January as well, so obviously WWE has high hopes for the brand, and it’s not likely to be going anywhere. But WWE is hoping to make a big splash with Mixed Match Challenge on a completely new platform, and it will take precedence for those 12 weeks.
