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Former WWE Executive Credits Dick Ebersol For Saturday Night’s Main Event
Image Credit: WWE
WWE aired several Saturday Night’s Main Event specials in the 1980s, and former WWE executive John Filippelli credits Dick Ebersol with the show’s creation. Filippelli, who is now president of YES Network, appeared on The Insiders Podcast and talked about how Ebersol, the former head of NBC Sports, pushed to make the WWE Saturday night show a semi-regular thing.
“Ebersol saw that success and then he just piggybacked and made a series out of it,” Filippelli recalled (per Wrestling Inc). “We had no intention of doing that. So you’ve got to give Dick credit for advancing it to where he did. We had nothing to do with that advancement. That was all Ebersol.”
Saturday Night’s Main Event premiered in May of 1985 and ran a total of 29 specials throughout the late 1980s, scoring big in the ratings and including five Friday night The Main Event specials as well.
