24 Facts About SNL

1.

SNL was replaced by Jean Doumanian, who was then replaced by Ebersol after a season of bad reviews.

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2.

Many SNL cast members have found national stardom while appearing on the show, and achieved success in film and television, both in front of and behind the camera.

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3.

Michaels later learned that Doumanian had been given his position at SNL after being recommended by her friend, NBC vice president Barbara Gallagher.

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4.

SNL broke with history by hiring established comedians such as Billy Crystal and Martin Short who could bring their already successful material to the show.

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5.

In December 2021, Lorne Michaels speculated that season 50 of SNL may be his last, while Kenan Thompson speculated in August 2022 that Saturday Night Live may come to an end altogether after its 50th season in 2025.

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6.

Original 1975 cast of SNL, titled "The Not Ready For Prime-Time Players", a term coined by writer Herb Sargent, included Laraine Newman, John Belushi, Jane Curtin, Gilda Radner, Dan Aykroyd, Garrett Morris, and Chevy Chase.

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7.

Those selected to join the cast of SNL are normally already accomplished performers, recruited from improvisational comedy groups such as The Groundlings and The Second City, or established stand-up comedians, who already possess the training or experience necessary for SNL.

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8.

SNL temporarily left the show in the summer of 2014, but came back that fall to anchor Update and reclaimed his status as a writer, then serving as co-head writer alongside Jost for five years.

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9.

SNL writers are often performers or experienced in writing and improvisational comedy.

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10.

SNL's was due to perform "Good Ones" and "New Shapes" on this episode, with Christine and the Queens and Caroline Polachek scheduled to guest on the latter performance.

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11.

Since the show's inception, SNL has aired from Studio 8H, located on floors 8 and 9 of the Comcast Building .

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12.

SNL's was hired after Michaels saw her photographs of Las Vegas and other work.

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13.

From May 1985 to April 1991, SNL was occasionally preempted for Saturday Night's Main Event.

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14.

The fledgling football league ended up changing their rules in order to speed up play, and a deal was reached where the feed to future games would be cut off —whether the game had been decided or not—when SNL started, so that no such incident would happen again.

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15.

SNL has been a huge success in the United States, channels in other countries have created their own versions of the show, including Germany, Egypt, Spain, South Korea, Japan, Russia, Canada, Finland, France, Italy, and Poland.

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16.

German version of SNL named RTL Samstag Nacht aired between 1993 and 1998 on RTL Television.

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17.

In 2002, SNL was ranked tenth on TV Guides 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, while in 2007 it was honored with inclusion on Time magazine's list of "100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME".

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18.

The so-called SNL Effect was observed during the 2008 presidential campaign, according to Mike Dabadie.

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19.

Several politicians have appeared on SNL, including President Gerald Ford, then-Senator Barack Obama, Senator John McCain, Senator Hillary Clinton, and Governor Sarah Palin, who appeared alongside Fey's Palin impression, resulting in the show's largest audience in fourteen years with fourteen million viewers.

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20.

When longtime cast member Kenan Thompson suggested in 2013 that female African-American representation was low because producers were not finding such comediennes who were "ready", media outlets countered it was SNL that was not ready, and the racial disparity "is symptomatic of problems deeply rooted in comedy and the entertainment industry at large".

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21.

SNL has had "little representation from Asian actors, as cast members or hosts", in its run.

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22.

SNL has made several efforts to develop some of the more popular sketches into feature-length films, with varying degrees of commercial and critical success.

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23.

Fictitious American folk music trio The Folksmen first appeared on SNL, performing the song "Old Joe's Place" before later appearing in the film A Mighty Wind .

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24.

In June 2014, two new flavors inspired by SNL sketches were introduced—Lazy Sunday, based on a sketch of the same name featuring Andy Samberg and Chris Parnell, and Gilly's Catastrophic Crunch based on the recurring Gilly sketches featuring Kristen Wiig.

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