I’ve followed the show since the very begining, and you’re right. Even during the original Belushi/Ackroyd/Murray glory days, there was still a lot of dreck.
I just read that Saturday Night Live will air a 2 hour prime time Christmas Special with Kirsten Wiig hosting as her breakout character “Gilly”.
I have said several times that I feel that Kirsten Wiig is the most physically attractive woman SNL has ever had in its cast, but her Gilly character is one of SNL’s all time worst recurring sketches, and I am stunned that this is what Lorne Michaels wants to use as the cover page for his special…
That’s…wow. I get up and leave the room when “Gilly” comes on. Completely, painfully unfunny. Although if “Gilly” is going to be hosting, then maybe that means they won’t have to actually do any Gilly skits. It sounds like it’s going to be a Christmas clip show. In which case I hope they will do “Merry Christmas from Tarzan, Tonto, and Frankenstein.”
The Woods sketc and The Obama sketch have been reference over and over in mainstream news and talk shows. That would indicate it is far from irrelevant.
I’m confused why anyone would think it’s remotely in danger of being canceled:
Saturday Night Live highest rated show on Saturday
Bolding mine. SNL, airing at 11:30, beat out the entire primetime lineup of every network.
The reason SNL is in no danger of being canceled is because it’s a goldmine. Not only is it cheap to make, it also scores extremely high ratings - even higher when you consider that its audience is predominantly in the best demographic groups for advertisers.
But even more than that, it is also a vehicle for spitting out cheap movies that are quite profitable. Even the ‘bad’ ones that get critically drubbed tend to make money, because they cost so little to make. Only a couple of them have failed to turn a profit.
But even more than that, the show is a ‘water cooler’ show. It gets all kinds of buzz on the internet. It helps promote the network. It also has primetime specials that get good ratings.
Saturday Night Live would have to go into the absolute bottom level of the ratings tank and stay there for years before anyone would think of canceling it.
BTW, one of the reasons it may have gotten better recently is because Jim Downey is apparently back. Downey is a writer who’s been with the show almost from the beginning, but he has been on and off the show for various lengths of time to work on other projects. He’s the guy who co-wrote most of Norm MacDonald’s weekend update material. He left the show in 2005 to write a book, but apparently he recently came back. He’s also not exactly a liberal (more like an iconoclast who attacks everything), so he may be responsible for the sharper tone SNL has taken against the Obama administration in the last two or three episodes.
To build on the previous post, as the stuff it mentions demonstrates, all you need is ONE really good/controversial sketch to send the ratings high enough to justify the whole deal. One sketch a few minutes long over a four or five week period, or more. That’s pretty good odds.
Some context: NBC, Fox and CBS aired reruns that night. ABC won the night with college football. SNL has been getting better numbers that other Saturday night non-sports program all year because the networks have mostly abandoned putting new material on Saturdays.
And let’s not forget the Emmy’s - last year was a banner year with the Tina Fey/Sarah Palin skits, which were so popular that Weekend Update sketches were shown on prime-time.
I will say the most consistent thing about the show are the people who say it sucks more “now” than “ever”.
Or consider what was being broadcast in this timeslot before Saturday Night Live - reruns of the Johnny Carson show. It’s not like NBC is looking to go back to that.