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Big Change for ‘Saturday Night Live’ for New Season

Sep 19, 2017  •  Post A Comment

NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” is making a key change to its broadcast plans for the show’s upcoming 43rd season. The network began airing the show live coast-to-coast on an experimental basis back in April, and after getting good ratings results from the move, it will apparently become permanent.

At least, “permanent” by TV standards. Specifically, today’s announcement from NBC states: “NBC’s Emmy Award-winning ‘Saturday Night Live’ will once again air live simultaneously around the country beginning with the highly anticipated season 43 premiere on Sept. 30 with host Ryan Gosling and musical guest Jay-Z.”

This means the show will air at the following times, by time zone:

11:30 p.m. Eastern

10:30 p.m. Central

9:30 p.m. Mountain

8:30 p.m. Pacific

In the Mountain and Pacific time zones, “SNL” will be repeated at 11:30 p.m.

The network notes in the announcement: “The live coast-to-coast airings that began in April grew 11% in ‘live plus same day’ viewership versus what ‘SNL’ was averaging earlier in the season (8.3 million vs. 7.5 million, according to Nielsen Media Research), indicating strong interest in the formerly tape-delayed markets to see the show live.”

7 Comments

  1. Will they leave their political commentary and snarky undermining of this country out of it? Seems to me for years one of the truly funniest and forward moving shows did not go for the jugular of one candidate or political party. Now it is directed at the Republicans of this country and I will not watch until it is cleaned up. And that has been actor who thinks he’s got talent Alec Baldwin is erased from the show.

    • You mean the guy who won an Emmy? For being Trump?

  2. Yup Scott, that’s what she means. Liberals LOVE to vote themselves awards! Look, I had no problem with Dana Carvey doing Papa Bush. He was hilarious. But around the time “W” took office, the jokes started becoming less funny and far more “personal.” Of course Barak got a free pass for 8 years…Did you really think SNL would do anything but grovel at his feet?? Now, as was evidenced by the Emmy’s on CBS on Sunday (lowest ratings ever except for last year) and every Saturday late night, the “humor” is missing. The vitriol is never ending.

  3. Comedians have been skewering politicians for centuries. It is a vital part of the first amendment. Free speech and the right to redress grievances with your government. As a viewer, you have the right not to watch. That’s the Nielsen equivalent of voting. Might I suggest you petition like minded networks to produce a late night sketch comedy show that leans to your political views. The ratings will take care of the rest.

  4. Mick, that’s not my point. As I said above, in the past, the comedy was really funny. I mean, did Dana Carvey have Papa Bush down to a “T” ?? Were both of the guys that did Bill Clinton (Darrell Hammond and I can’t remember the other guy) just hilarious they way they portrayed the former President?? The point is, it was funny. There wasn’t anything “personal.” This was true whether it was SNL, Johnny Carson, whomever. Now, it’s just downright nasty. We aren’t supposed to get a chuckle out of it, we’re supposed to punctuate the supposed joke with a thought like “yeah, that bastard Trump, he’s certifiable.” That’s not comedy. That’s a psychosis. Sure, I can turn the channel or not watch at all, and I do. That doesn’t change the nature of the current political air-quality. It’s noxious.

    • So the Clinton impersonations poking fun at his cheating scandal were NOT personal, but those poking fun at Trump ARE personal? The truth is, they are all personal to a degree, but Trump just happens to provide a lot more material for the show to work with. The ratings speak for themselves.

  5. I, for one, am glad that TV Week spelled out EXACTLY the time that the show airs in each time zone. That base-60 math can be hard for us non-Traffic department folks.

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