MUMBAI: World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) has celebrated the milestone of producing the most number of original episodes of any weekly fictional entertainment programme on American television
 
 

The 636th episode of Raw aired yesterday 1 August 2005 on Spike TV. It surpassed the previous record-holder, Gunsmoke, which produced 635 original episodes during its 20-year run on television.

Raw's production schedule that calls for 52 original episodes a year. In India WWE action airs on Ten Sports. WWE introduced Raw on the USA Network in January 1993. The successful live, prime-time weekly cable series moved to Spike TV in September 2000. In April, WWE and NBC Universal inked a new, three-year agreement that will return Raw to USA Network from 3 October 2005.

WWE executive producer Kevin Dunn says, “This is a tremendous milestone, and a testament to the dedication of our talented cast of Superstars, television crews and writers who work tirelessly week in and week out to produce the best program possible for our viewers. We are very proud of producing a weekly television program that for 13 years has grown in recognition and in ratings to the point where it is consistently, 52 weeks a year, one of the most watched regularly scheduled programmes on ad-supported cable. Our longevity on television is directly related to the unbelievable enthusiasm and passion of our WWE fans. We look forward to entertaining them for years to come.”