Just like the legendary show celebrating its 50th anniversary, we’ll jump right in: Saturday Night Live is airing a 3-hour special star-studded episode tonight to honor its five decades on air.
The SNL birthday bash will feature a who’s-who of comedy roster of former cast members and hosts that’s too long to list, as well as several musical guests, including Paul McCartney, Sabrina Carpenter, Post Malone, and Lady Gaga. And straying from the show’s usual late night slot, it will air on NBC and Peacock at 8pm ET.
It’s currently celebrating becoming the 5th longest-running show on TV, but SNL is known for much more than its longevity. What started as a boundary-pushing TV sketch comedy experiment became a comedic celebrity mill that shaped what makes generations of Americans spit out their coffee.
Without SNL…ex-cast members Adam Sandler, Eddie Murphy, Bill Murray, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and other A-listers likely would have never become household names; we might never have gotten sitcoms like Parks and Recreation and 30 Rock from alumni showrunners; our cultural zeitgeist would lack dozens of iconic gags; and useful phrases like “Debbie Downer” would be missing from our lexicon.
When SNL debuted in 1975 amid a TV comedy landscape dominated by silver-haired dudes in suits, its irreverent sketches were the first thing that made many young boomers earnestly crack up. Producer Lorne Michaels, who still runs the show in a semi-dictatorial manner, cultivated an environment that rewarded experimentation and creative risk-taking. He had young writers and performers bouncing ideas off each other, while carefully orchestrating the process and curating the best for showtime.
- Michaels also shook things up with rotating celebrity hosts and constantly updating casts, which perpetually injected the show with fresh blood.
- SNL also helped popularize the cold open as an audience retention hack that’s since been seen in shows like The Office and The Big Bang Theory.
But complaining that SNL just doesn’t hit like it used to has long become a national sport. In a sign that it’s not as beloved as it used to be, 50% of audiences said they didn’t miss it when it went off air during the writer’s strike in 2023, per a Newsweek poll. So, as digital outlets sap TV viewership and audiences perpetually doubt its comedic freshness, we must ask a question almost as old as SNL itself: Is SNL washed?
SNL’s influence may be waning
The show’s signature characteristic that is in its name—the live broadcast that lends the show its sense of spontaneity—is no longer part of the experience for many viewers.
- Clips from the show racked up 3.1 billion views on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and other social platforms last season, according to The Hollywood Reporter, and NBC says it grew its social video views by 36% from the previous year.
- But on social media, it’s elbowing through a crowded field of entertainers whose lack of elaborate sets and NBC budgets doesn’t stop them from garnering a comparable number of views.
The struggle to compete for eyeballs with new media was on view during the last presidential election: Kamala Harris’ SNL cold open got 11 million views on YouTube, but 55 million people watched Donald Trump’s pre-election interview with Joe Rogan.
And it’s been a while since SNL has launched any cast member to Box Office superstardom like it did with numerous comedy legends in decades past.
But don’t write it off
SNL started this season with an average 7.3 million viewers per episode, according to Nielsen, and it remains the most popular comedy show on TV. As for doubts about its sparkle, the BBC’s Caryn James points out that SNL banger-to-cringe ratio was always uneven, noting that some people may have distorted memories about how consistently hilarious it actually was in seasons past.
While the show’s audience is now largely made up of people who remember Dana Carvey impersonating George Bush Sr., SNL is still making inroads with younger audiences by inviting Gen Z stars such as Timothée Chalamet to host and Olivia Rodrigo as a musical guest.
Looking ahead…the show’s ability to make viewers recount its gags to colleagues the following Monday will depend in part on who gets tapped to run it after 80-year-old Michaels retires. The rumor mill has named SNL veterans Tina Fey, John Mulaney, Kristen Wiig, Seth Meyers, and Keenan Thompson as potential successors.—SK