Last season, Saturday Night Live realized Twitter was ruining the show for the West Coast and wrapped the season by airing live coast to coast, for the first time in its history. And it worked so well, that when the show arrives for its 43rd season September 30th, the whole season will air live across the country.
Unsurprisingly, airing live regardless of time zone added to the substantial ratings uptick the show saw last season, likely thanks in part to airing in prime time. So, for this season, it’ll be airing live across the country, sticking to the traditional 11:30pm time slot in ET, and the air time shifting back an hour for each time zone. The West Coast will also get an “encore” showing at 11:30pm PT.
This was perhaps inevitable. After all, the late night weekend time slot comes from a time where for networks that was basically dead air, so Lorne Michaels and company could put far edgier comedy on the air. While SNL is still pushing boundaries, it’s gone from outsider to institution, and that makes it easier to air in a primetime slot. It helps that all NBC currently has there is Dateline; sorry, true crime and news junkies, you’ll just have to resort to ID Network.
(via NBC)
