Studio 8H in 30 Rockefeller Center has housed the same chaotic ritual since 1975: a Monday pitch, an all-night Tuesday script, a brutal Wednesday read-through, then frantic rewrites until the live 93-minute broadcast begins at 11:29:30 p.m. Eastern. Kenan Thompson, now the longest-serving cast member, joined in 2003 and has survived multiple wholesale cast purges; 171 others have passed through the same revolving door. The original “Not Ready for Prime-Time Players” were paid 750 dollars an episode and slept in their offices; today the 39th season budget topped 70 million dollars, subsidised by New York State to keep the cameras rolling in Manhattan.
Every episode follows the same skeleton: cold-open skewering the week’s politics, someone corpses and yells “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!”, celebrity host monologue, sketches peppered with pretaped shorts, Weekend Update desk, musical guest, goodnight. The format has been cloned abroad with mixed results, yet the American original still draws 305 Emmy nominations and counting. Under Lorne Michaels’ uninterrupted stewardship since 1985 (bar one sabbatical year), the show has launched Eddie Murphy, Tina Fey, Will Ferrell, Adam Sandler and dozens more from the repertory ranks to film and sitcom stardom.
The machinery demands new blood constantly; 2021 saw the largest exodus in a decade when Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant and Pete Davidson departed together. Replacements arrive as “featured players,” promoted only if they survive the weekly cull that can kill a sketch at 8 p.m. on Saturday after it has already reached dress rehearsal. Digital shorts, once a novelty, now rival live sketches for prestige, and since 2017 the entire country watches simultaneously, no tape-delay for the West Coast, ensuring the jokes land everywhere at once.
Production Details
NBC / 51 Seasons / 1009 Episodes / 1975 - Present
Created by: Dick Ebersol, Lorne Michaels
Showrunner(s): Lorne Michaels, Jean Doumanian, Dick Ebersol
Writer(s): Lorne Michaels, Herbert Sargent, Jim Downey
Producer(s): Steve Higgins, Lindsay Shookus
Cinematography: Charlie Gruet
Main Cast
Kenan Thompson as Self - Various Characters
Darrell Hammond as Self - Various Characters
Seth Meyers as Self - Various Characters
Colin Jost as Self - Various Characters
Fred Armisen as Self - Various Characters
Michael Che as Self - Various Characters
Al Franken as Self - Various Characters
Cecily Strong as Self - Various Characters
Kate McKinnon as Self - Various Characters
Aidy Bryant as Self - Various Characters
Mikey Day as Self - Various Characters
Tim Meadows as Self - Various Characters
