You are very accurate about when they left. When they were gone, I was gone. Finshed watching SNL. Adam Sandler is huge moneymaker these days at a ripe old age for Hollywood
Posted on 08/01/2025 4:22:00 AM PDT by dennisw
Saturday Night Live could be axed by NBC when its elderly creator and producer Lorne Michaels finally steps down from the money-losing show, an expert predicted.
Robert Thompson, who founded the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University, shared the gloomy forecast after Stephen Colbert's talk show was canceled by CBS.
He thinks NBC may be moved to axe legendary sketch comedy show SNL and Michaels' other shows for the network - The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Night With Seth Meyers - when the 80-year-old mogul decides to retire. Speaking days after CNBC revealed SNL, Fallon and Meyers lose a combined $100 million a year, Thompson said, '(Lorne Michaels) cant keep doing that forever.
'If he decides to retire, or cant do those shows anymore, NBC would be [in] an interesting position.' He continued, adding the network would have the 'opportunity to get out of late night in one fell swoop instead of overhauling every program.
'It would be the easiest time to say, we had a good run.' Thompson told the Daily Mail part of the reason the shows are 'vulnerable' is the challenge that NBC faces in replacing Michaels, a visionary who first created SNL in 1975.
SNL remains a cultural zenith that attracts the most elite of A-list celebrities to guest host and perform musical acts. It's also been a launch pad for some of the greatest names in comedy
It costs $4 million an episode to produce, or around $100 million a year annually.
But even those numbers are not enough to help SNL or its stablemates Fallon and Meyers cover their costs with traditional advertising, CNBC reported, which has declined across the board as viewers shun linear TV for streamers.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
One of life’s mysteries. Every time I tried to watch, over decades, never funny. In college (90’s), sat with a group of dudes, at best one or two had ‘forced laughter’... the rest were silent.
How has this not been axed a long time ago?
I've watched snippets on Youtube. I even had to sit through an episode or two when I was visiting my (liberal) sister and her family on vacation once or twice. I see the unfunny "talent" they have as the cast. I've even seen an interview with Chris Rock who is genuinely funny trying to say it "felt wrong" to make a single joke at Obama's expense the whole 8 years he was in office so that's why they didn't do it. I've seen everything from Alec Baldwin doing the worst Trump impersonation imaginable which was really just hate filled bile and not at all funny, I've seen whatshername doing a really stupid impression of Sara Palin. Shall I go on? They're obviously not funny and haven't been funny since the mid 1990s.
Speaking of Star Trek, it’s hard to top this one, from In Living Color:
Star Trek : The Wrath of Farrakhan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52o1d7XPni0
“Spock, are you out of your Vulcan mind!”
What might be funny would be somebody on the show doing an impersonation of Gilda Radner doing a parody of Sydney Sweeney making a commercial.
I found “The Californians” mildly amusing, Fred Armisen was probably the last SNL cast member with any talent.
Exactly. A lot of Boomers like to claim SNL was never any good after the first cast but that's simply not true. Just look at some of their 80s and especially early 90s casts. If anything, that early to mid 90s cast went on to have more success than anyone outside of SNL....which tells you they were actually talented. Its when Lorne Michaels inexplicably got rid of the collection of stars he had after 1995 that the show fell off a cliff. Look at what success their casts have had since then. The only one who has done much is Will Ferrell who I never found to be the least bit funny.
In the 1990s, things were still good. Johnny Carson and Jay Leno were good. Letterman had not morphed into Bitterman yet. There were lots of stand up comedians who were good and there were good comedies in the movie theaters. Hell, there was even rock music still dominating the radio! The Democrats were actually still pretty reasonable (just look at Bill Clinton's policies...they look an awful lot like Trump's). Then by the 2000s one by one, everything went to shit culturally.
SNL is one of those shows I don’t watch, but keep hearing about anyway , similar to The View.
Netflix started out pretty good with lots of interesting content. Then it took a sharp dive to the gutter. My understanding is obama had some degree of ownership, which is what caused the spiral to hell.
After the 90s. Even up to that point, they were still solid.
The Ambiguously Gay Duo was a funny animated comedy sketch. For obvious reasons, they've stopped.
You are very accurate about when they left. When they were gone, I was gone. Finshed watching SNL. Adam Sandler is huge moneymaker these days at a ripe old age for Hollywood
I could even enjoy watching the late Bill Hicks. His routine on marketers is a classic....”Oh I see what he’s doing there, he’s going after that anti-marketing dollar, that’s a huge market, we’ve done research!”
Shift gears and get a conservative host (who is actually funny) and the ratings and the revenue would soar!
Time for SNL to go the way of all things.
All you need to know: Susan Rice on the board since 2018.
Among many other of their psyops are big contracts with the Obamas and “the Sussexes”.
I’m old enough to remember when TV signed off after the 10pm news and started the day at 5am with the Pledge of Allegiance. Since I sign off around 10pm and wake up around 5am, I certainly would not be bothered if TV went back to that.
Hasn’t been funny in years. I love sketch comedy, but not political, one sided, stuff. Everyday observations put into a comedic scene. That’s the stuff I like, but ee stopped making fun of ourselves and became boring.
Again, the fact that SNL has been political biased against the Republicans for years and the fact that most of the show is not funny is the real reason they are losing money.
I used to love SNL when it started. I haven’t watched it in the last 15 years, maybe more. A catch a clip on youtube here and there and most of them suck.
“And that “conservative” was Liz Cheney.”
And she had become a TDS RINO.
Even in the beginning, they were against Republicans, starting with Chevy Chase and his Gerald Ford imitation.
They were relatively easy on Jimmy Carter, maybe outside of the one skit where he said, “Inflation is our friend......”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.