Saturday Night Live Going Live Across All Time Zones

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If you’re a West Coaster and have ever felt ripped off because when you watched SNL, it was on delay and not actually live, there’s good news from executive producer Lorne Michaels. According to Variety, starting on Saturday, April 15th, Saturday Night Live will be live at the same time across all time zones across the country. That’s means when SNL comes on at 11:30pm on the East Coast, it will also be on at 10:30pm Central time; 9:30pm Mountain time; and 8:30pm Pacific time. Then it will be repeated again at 11:30pm in the Mountain and Pacific time zones.

Saturday Night Live is experiencing huge success this season and NBC Entertainment Chair Bob Greenblatt wants to take advantage of the boost in ratings. He said, “‘SNL’ — enjoying its most popular season in two decades — is part of the national conversation, and we thought it would be a great idea to broadcast to the west and mountain time zones live at the same time it’s being seen in the east and central time zones.” He added, “That way, everyone is in on the joke at the same time.”

The Emmy Award winning show will keep the “live across all time zones” experiment going from April 15th through to the end of the season. The hosts for these final 4 shows are all mapped out and include SNL alum and Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon on April 15th, followed by Chris Pine on May 6th, Melissa McCarthy on May 13th, and Dwayne Johnson for the season finale on May 20th. With Melissa McCarthy scheduled to return to host on May 13th, expect that “national conversation” that Bob Greenblatt mentioned to include her impression of White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer which could easily be considered the hit of Season 42 so far.

Saturday Night Live’s ratings are up 22% in total viewers this politically charged season compared to the same time in the 2015-16 season.

Ernie Tripper
Ernie Tripper