Saturday Evening Reside celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in February with a star-studded live performance and an A-list primetime particular, a “big second” for the NBC late-night present.
Ego Nwodim, who joined the solid in 2018 for Season 44, mentioned throughout Deadline’s Contenders Tv: Documentary, Unscripted & Selection occasion that the three-hour particular February 16 felt like “constructing as much as a marriage.”
“All all through the season, I really feel like we anticipated what the fiftieth was going to be. We didn’t know. I known as it an SNL wedding ceremony, [even though] birthday is clearly extra becoming. It felt like we have been having a marriage, and it was like we’re constructing as much as this wedding ceremony,” she mentioned. “We had these episodes main as much as the precise fiftieth celebration, however all of the whereas simply understanding, ‘Okay, we’re working towards this factor, and that’s going to be such an enormous second.’ You possibly can simply really feel it within the air.”
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Mikey Day, who was employed as a author in 2013 earlier than turning into a solid member in 2016, mentioned he first observed Season 50 was going to be completely different with a brand new emblem and opening titles, which was a “fixed reminder.” “From the start, it was type of this factor, type of hanging over the present, like we’ve this large present in February,” he added.
Day helped kick off the fiftieth particular, taking part in an ICE agent, alongside Devon Walker, that escorted Martin Quick off the stage as he cameoed on Steve Martin’s opening monologue.
The particular featured quite a lot of basic sketches together with The Lawrence Welk Present, Black Jeopardy!, Shut Encounters, a musical sketch from John Mulaney, Debbie Downer and Scared Straight, alongside common programming similar to Weekend Replace and a few pre-taped sketches.
Stars included Tom Hanks, Pedro Pascal, Ryan Reynolds, Keith Richards, Robert De Niro, Jason Momoa and Meryl Streep alongside former solid members similar to Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Eddie Murphy, Garrett Morris, Kristen Wiig, Will Ferrell and Laraine Newman in addition to the present solid.
Producer and costume designer Tom Broecker joked that he attended round 8,000 conferences from the summer time onwards relating to SNL50. “There have been occasions once I needed to remind myself and even inform different individuals, ‘Look, take the second in. It’s by no means going to occur once more. I don’t wish to be dramatic about it however that is one thing that can by no means occur once more within the historical past of tv’,” he mentioned.
Saturday Evening Reside, which sees its fiftieth season run via Might, received six consecutive Emmys within the Excellent Selection Sketch Sequence class between 2017-2022. Nonetheless, the class was reshaped by the TV Academy in 2023, when it started competing to, and dropping out to, Final Week Tonight with John Oliver. Over the previous 50 years, SNL has recorded 331 Emmy nominations and 90 wins.
Examine again Monday for the panel video.
