Live, from New York—but without an audience, in order to maintain health and safety protocols—it’s… Saturday night?
According to reports published by both Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, season 46 of Saturday Night Live will be recorded inside the hallowed halls of Studio 8H in New York’s Rockefeller Center for the first time since March. Previously, SNL shifted to remote production to produce the final three episodes of season 45—none of which, despite the promise of its title, were aired live.
NBC had no comment when reached by Vanity Fair; a source close to the show said SNL had nothing to announce at this time.
Back on March 7, Saturday Night Live aired its final traditional episode of the season, with Daniel Craig as host and a special guest appearance by Senator Elizabeth Warren. (The episode notably spoofed the coronavirus outbreak, which was then still in its early stages in the United States.) Weeks later, however, the show joined fellow NBC late-night staples The Tonight Show and Late Night by shifting its production priorities to the home environment. A planned March 28 episode featuring John Krasinski was scrapped; when SNL returned on April 11, it was with the cast at their respective homes for a variety of pre-taped sketches. None of the three Saturday Night Live episodes that aired in April and May included a set host, but each featured starry guests like Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt (who memorably played Dr. Anthony Fauci), and Kristen Wiig.
By all accounts, those shows helped reinvigorate the cast, despite their distances. “It was really heartening to see people make things, to have no idea what they would be and then have them really make you laugh,” head writer and Weekend Update host Colin Jost told the New York Times in a recent interview. Jost, who in his new memoir floated the notion of leaving SNL in the near future, added, “It made me even more appreciative of my job and my friends at work, the energy and the joy of doing the show. That makes me want to stick around more.”
Similarly, Pete Davidson—whose fraught history with SNL is well-documented (“They think I’m fucking dumb,” he said earlier this year)—told the New York Times in a separate interview that the at-home shows made him want to stick around as a cast member a bit longer. “I had a great time doing SNL at home,” he said. “It’s amazing how Lorne always figures out the right thing to do whenever something like this happens in the world. So I’m just really excited to go back and to hang with those guys. I had a great time.”
Thus far, only two major late-night shows have resumed in-studio production: Conan O’Brien now broadcasts his TBS late-night show from the Largo theater in Los Angeles, while Jimmy Fallon returned last week to Rockefeller Center to host The Tonight Show. In both cases, the hosts remain socially distanced from any other on-air talent and their interviews are still done via videoconference. It remains to be seen how Saturday Night Live, where cast members are often in close proximity and rely on costume designers and make-up artists to help with quick appearance changes between sketches, will adapt to public health and safety guidelines.
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