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 ...
SCTV
Yes, I was just adding onto what he already pointed out.
You summed it up. Network TV is pure propaganda, just like their news.
It’s why we watch streamed TV, if we don’t like it, there are multiple other choices to switch to.
The core of the Not Ready For Primetime Players, came out of The Second City, based in Chicago and Toronto, which also of course was the core of SCTV.
I think the last time they were funny was right around the time John Belushi drank himself to death....
Another tentacle of the mockingbird media.
SNL still has an occasional good skit. I won’t watch the show anymore, but I will catch clips on YouTube.
Lorne Michaels made a huge mistake when he first started the show way back when. Politics should have been off-limits. By their very nature, political jokes will offend a good slice of your audience.
Plus, political jokes are lazy. It’s easier to make fun of a politician than actually writing something clever.
maybe snl could do that skit
it would be funny
political jokes are fine if even handed
when it is one sided it becomes tedious
and is really propaganda
Yes it has. Born off the backs of John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Garrett Morris, Lorraine Newman, Jane Curtain, Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd. Ceased to be funny afterwards and has been on life support ever since.
Didn’t you see this after Hillary LOST??? I laughed and laughed and LAUGHED!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG-_ZDrypec
I LOVED, LOVED SECOND CITY TV.
That was a thousand times more clever than SNL.
Thanks for the memory, dfwgator.
Yes it has. Born off the backs of John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Garrett Morris, Lorraine Newman, Jane Curtain, Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd.
“I’d rather have vintage SCTV comedy over SNL”
When In Living Color was on, it was always funnier than snl.
Political jokes are fine when evenly distributed and the jokesters are not harpies when “off duty”. Political jokes on one side with harpies is not funny…it’s tiresome.
Nothing funny about woke comedy.
Now if they were to start doing actual comedy and start stepping on a few woke toes. There’s big money on the table for that. I think American Eagle stepped into that.
Yep. Though of course Netflix and the like are just as polluted.
“Ceased to be funny afterwards and has been on life support ever since.”
Well, there were some that were funny later and went on to successful careers in movies and other forms of entertainment.
Dennis Miller, Rob Scheider, Jon Lovitz, Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock and David Spade come to mind.
But after that generation, whoever has been on that show is so obscure they can probably walk around in public without fear of being recognized.
I’m old enough to remember when they were funny.
I remember when comedians, in general, were funny, even the leftist ones.
MAD TV in its early years was better than SNL also.
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