Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s biographical series Young Rock recently got the nod for a third season, but its new timeslot will have it directly competing with WWE’s flagship show later this year. The third season is set to premiere in November on NBC and will air at 8: 30 p.m. PT on Friday nights after Lopez vs. Lopez. SmackDown airs from 8-10 p.m. ET on FOX.
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“While leaning into our strong, stable schedule in the fall, we’re also rethinking legacy launch timing to give our shows the best chance for success,” Frances Berwick, Chairman, Entertainment Networks, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, said in a press release. “With the huge reach that our affiliate partner stations provide, coupled with exclusive next-day availability on Peacock, our NBC shows will truly be accessible to audiences in any way that they want to watch.”
Brian Gewirtz, WWE’s former head writer and Young Rock‘s executive producer, confirmed in an interview with ComicBook earlier this year that a third season would tackle Johnson’s success during the WWE’s Attitude Eta from 1997-2002. The show has already covered Johnson’s tryout with the promotion and, based on advertising, will reach Johnson’s official WWE debut at the 1996 Survivor Series event by the end of the season. Legendary wrestlers like “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, The Undertaker, Triple H and Mankind that will undoubtedly play a role in that retelling have already been cast.ย
“Oh, definitely,” Gewirtz said. “We strategically put just a quick little second of a clip in there in the new trailer, kind of like Princess Leia in The Force Awakens trailer. We just wanted to give a quick, ‘Oh my God, what was that?’ moment of seeing Rocky Maivia making his grand entrance at Survivor Series ’96. We get to that and potentially more stuff this season without really giving anything away. Hopefully Season Three and beyond, at least in that timeline with Uli (Latukefu), we could really explore that. Uli, who plays 23-year-old Dwayne, he’s really just an athletic freak. He took to wrestling so quickly that if Vince [McMahon] wanted to take a look at him and bring him into WWE, I’m sure he would achieve success really quickly. I don’t think he’s going to do that. But if he wanted to, he probably could.”