Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!

"[a] is a famous catchphrase typically featured on the American sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, which runs on the NBC broadcast network.

[1] Lorne Michaels later explained in an oral history of the show that he made the decision to do a cold open on the Thursday night before the premiere episode.

At the same time, the camera zooms in for a tight close-up shot of the person's face, followed by a dissolve or smash cut to the show's opening montage and titles.

This could be for stars like Brad Pitt[3] and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson,[4] or for more unusual celebrities like Ron Darling, John McLaughlin (host) (on October 26, 1991), Monica Lewinsky,[5] Who Wants to Be a Millionaire winner John Carpenter, WWE chairman Vince McMahon (on March 18, 2000), Mayor of New York City Rudy Giuliani (on September 29, 2001, two weeks after the September 11 attacks),[6] Carolyn Kepcher (on April 3, 2004),[7] Al Sharpton (on November 2, 2013),[8] Jason Aldean (on October 7, 2017, after paying tribute to the lives lost in the 2017 Las Vegas shooting and to the late Tom Petty),[9] and Stormy Daniels (on May 5, 2018).

Gerald Ford opened the show with the phrase (in a pre-recorded segment)[10] on April 17, 1976, which came during his presidency, when press secretary Ron Nessen was host.