Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is an American late-night live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC. The show's premiere was hosted by George Carlin on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title NBC's Saturday Night. The show's comedy sketches, which often parody popular culture and politics, are performed by a large and varying cast of repertory and newer cast members. Each episode is hosted by a celebrity guest and broadcast live with a studio audience. The host usually delivers a monologue toward the start of the show and then performs in sketches with the cast, and introduces featured performances by a musical guest. An episode normally begins with a cold open sketch that is usually based on current political or pop cultural events and ends with someone breaking character and proclaiming, "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!", before moving to credits and introduction of the guest host.
In 1980, Michaels left the show to explore other opportunities. He was replaced by Jean Doumanian, who was then replaced by Ebersol after a season of bad reviews. Ebersol ran the show until 1985, when Michaels returned. Since then, Michaels has served as showrunner. Many SNL cast members have found national stardom while appearing on the show, and achieved success in film and television, both in front of and behind the camera. Others associated with the show, such as writers, have gone on to successful careers creating, writing, and starring in television and film.
SNL is broadcast from Studio 8H at NBC's headquarters in 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York. As of the start of season 51 in October 2025, SNL had aired episodes since its debut. It is one of the longest-running network television programs in the United States. The show format has been developed and recreated in several countries, meeting with different levels of success. Successful sketches have seen life outside the show as feature films, including The Blues Brothers, Wayne's World and A Night at the Roxbury. The show has been marketed in other ways, including home media releases of "best of" and whole seasons, and books and documentaries about behind-the-scenes activities of running and developing the show.
Throughout five decades on air, Saturday Night Live has received a vast number of awards, including 84 Primetime Emmy Awards, 6 Writers Guild of America Awards, and 3 Peabody Awards. In 2000, it was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame. It was ranked tenth in TV Guides "50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time" list, and in 2007 it was listed as one of Times "100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME". As of 2022, the show had received more than 305 Primetime Emmy Award nominations, the most received by any television program.
History
Development: 1974–1975
Beginning in 1965, NBC network affiliates broadcast reruns of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on Saturday or Sunday nights. In 1974, Johnny Carson petitioned to NBC executives for the weekend shows to be pulled and saved so they could be aired during weeknights, allowing him to take time off. In response, NBC president Herbert Schlosser approached the vice president of late-night programming, Dick Ebersol, and asked him to create a show to fill the Saturday night time slot. Schlosser and Ebersol then approached Lorne Michaels. Over the next three weeks, Ebersol and Michaels developed the latter's idea for a variety show featuring high-concept comedy sketches, political satire, and music performances that would attract 18- to 34-year-old viewers. NBC decided to base the new show at their studios in 30 Rockefeller Center. Michaels was given Studio 8H, a converted radio studio that was home to NBC's election and Apollo moon landing coverage. It was revamped for the premiere at a cost of $250,000.By 1975, Michaels had assembled the show's initial cast, including Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman, Gilda Radner, and George Coe. The cast was nicknamed the "Not Ready for Prime-Time Players", a term coined by show writer Herb Sargent. Much of the talent pool involved in the inaugural season was recruited from The National Lampoon Radio Hour, including the original head writer, Michael O'Donoghue.
1970s
NBC's Saturday Night debuted on October 11, 1975, with an episode featuring Carlin as host. The original title was used because the Saturday Night Live title was in use by Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell on rival network ABC. After the cancellation of Cosell's show in 1976, NBC purchased the rights to the name and officially changed the show's title to Saturday Night Live at the start of the 1977–1978 season, its third. The cast was initially paid $750 per episode, and essentially lived at the offices, according to Michaels. The show found its footing by the fourth episode, hosted by Candice Bergen, which featured the cast in most segments. The show developed a cult following, and its humor was seen as refreshing and daring, in comparison to previous sketch and variety shows that would rarely deal with controversial topics and issues. Iconic characters during the show's first five seasons included Belushi's samurai, the Coneheads, and Radner's Roseanne Roseannadanna. Chase, the show's first breakout star, left in the middle of its second season to pursue a movie career — the first of many cast members to do so — and was replaced by Bill Murray.Drugs were a major problem during the show's first five years, which exacerbated existing tensions. Cocaine had become an "integral part of the working process" on SNL by the 1978–1979 season, according to Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad. Aykroyd and Belushi left the show after the 1978–1979 season to make The Blues Brothers, and as the fifth season ended in 1980, Michaels asked executives to place the show on hiatus for a year in order to allow him time to pursue other projects. Michaels suggested writers Al Franken, Tom Davis, and Jim Downey as his replacements; NBC president Fred Silverman disliked Franken and was infuriated by his Update routine in May 1980, called "A Limo for a Lame-O", that had critiqued Silverman's job performance. Unable to secure the deal that he wanted, Michaels chose to leave NBC, and Jean Doumanian was given his position. Almost every writer and cast member, including Michaels, left the show after the May 24, 1980, season finale.
1980s
Doumanian's rapidly-assembled new cast faced immediate comparisons to the previous cast, and was not received favorably by critics or audiences. In a February 1981 episode, cast member Charles Rocket used the profanity "fuck" during a sketch. Rocket later said he was trying to kill time before the show's close and had not meant to utter the word. Following this episode, Doumanian was dismissed after only ten months on the job.Although some executives suggested SNL be cancelled, the show received a reprieve, and Dick Ebersol was hired as producer. He worked quickly to revamp the show, eventually removing all of the new cast members aside from Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo. Ebersol's sketches leaned towards more accessible, broad comedy, which alienated some long-time fans, writers, and cast members. His distaste for political humor led the show to largely avoid jokes about President Ronald Reagan during his time as showrunner. Under Ebersol's leadership, Murphy, who had been underused during Doumanian's tenure, rose to prominence with popular characters such as Mister Robinson's Neighborhood and Gumby. His success was a major factor in the show's resurgence, though it created tensions within the cast.
In a break with tradition, producers hired established comedians such as Billy Crystal and Martin Short for the 1984–1985 season. Though this season was considered one of the series' funniest, it diverged significantly from Michaels' innovative approach. Like Michaels before him, Ebersol informed NBC that he would only return if the show took a hiatus to recast and rebuild, and diverge significantly from the established live format. NBC rejected these requests and instead decided to approach Michaels to return as producer.
Michaels returned for the 1985–1986 season; the show was again recast, with Michaels borrowing Ebersol's idea to seek out established actors. Writers struggled with the cast, and Michaels cleaned house again for the 1986–1987 season, seeking unknown talent such as Dana Carvey and Phil Hartman instead of known names. This new cast was successful at reviving the show's popularity in the eyes of critics and audiences.
1990s
In the early 1990s, much of this core cast began to leave the show, and younger performers such as Chris Farley and Adam Sandler began to be promoted to repertory status. Some of these cast members, such as Sandler, Farley, Rob Schneider, David Spade and Chris Rock, would come to be known as the "Bad Boys of SNL" for their outrageous comedy style. Afraid of cast members leaving for film careers, Michaels had overcrowded the cast, causing a divide between the veteran members and the new, younger talent. This led to increased competition for the show's limited screen time, and an increasing reliance on "younger", less subtle humor.The show lost Carvey and Hartman, two of its biggest stars, between 1992 and 1994. Wanting to increase SNLs ratings and profitability, NBC West Coast president Don Ohlmeyer and other executives began to actively interfere in the show, recommending that new stars such as Chris Farley and Adam Sandler be fired and critiquing the costly nature of performing the show live. Criticism of the show's writing increased during this period, which reached its peak by the 1994–1995 season, which is considered one of the series' worst. A widely publicized profile of the show in New York during this period was highly critical of the show's humor, cast, and backstage dysfunction.
The show's cast was largely overhauled for the 1995–1996 season with names such as Will Ferrell and Cheri Oteri, which was successful at revitalizing the show. The show faced new competition during this period in the form of Foxs sketch comedy show Mad TV, which aired a half hour earlier than SNL and featured a more diverse cast.