An episode normally begins with a cold open sketch that is usually based on political events and ends with someone breaking character and proclaiming, "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!

Broadcast from Studio 8H at NBC's headquarters in the Comcast Building at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, SNL has aired 980 episodes since its debut and began its 50th season on September 28, 2024, making it one of the longest-running network television programs in the United States.

Over the next three weeks, Ebersol and Michaels developed the latter's idea for a variety show featuring high-concept comedy sketches, political satire, and music performances that would attract 18- to 34-year-old viewers.

[8]By 1975, Michaels had assembled the show's initial cast, including Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman, Gilda Radner, and George Coe.

[13] Much of the talent pool involved in the inaugural season was recruited from The National Lampoon Radio Hour,[14][15] including the original head writer, Michael O'Donoghue.

[40] Under Ebersol's leadership, Eddie Murphy, who had been underused during Doumanian's tenure, rose to prominence with popular characters such as Mister Robinson's Neighborhood and Gumby.

[73][74][75] Taped material significantly increased in the mid-2000s with SNL Digital Shorts by The Lonely Island, and continued into the following years with videos by Good Neighbor and Please Don't Destroy.

[90] Michaels told Entertainment Tonight that month that former head writer and cast member Tina Fey could "easily" be his successor, were he to step down, but said he had not made a decision yet at that point.

[92] Kenan Thompson, the show's longest-serving cast member, speculated in 2022 that SNL may come to an end altogether after its fiftieth season, saying that it could make financial sense for NBC.

Many of the Weekend Update hosts have gone on to find greater success outside the show, including Dennis Miller,[101] Seth Meyers,[101] Norm Macdonald,[101] Colin Quinn,[101] and Jimmy Fallon.

The new contracts were reportedly developed after many previously unknown cast members, such as Mike Myers and Adam Sandler, gained fame on SNL only to leave and make money for other studios.

[138] A typical episode of SNL will feature a single host chosen for their popularity or novelty, or because they have a film, album, or other work being released near the time of their appearance on the show.

[161] Elements of Saturday Night Live that are pre-recorded, such as certain commercial parodies, SNL Digital Shorts, and show graphics are processed off-site in the post-production facilities of Broadway Video.

Because the show airs outside of the safe harbor outside of Eastern and Central Time, a brief broadcast delay is installed to meet Federal Communications Commission regulations of primetime programming.

[177] Abbreviated thirty- and sixty-minute versions of the first five seasons aired as The Best of Saturday Night Live in syndication (from Orion Television; at the time, the FCC's fin-syn rules prevented NBC from directly distributing reruns of the show) beginning in the 1980s, and later on Nick at Nite in 1988.

NBC executive Robert Greenblatt explained the show's significant viewership had made it part of the "national conversation", and thus, they felt it would be appropriate for the entire country to be "in on the joke at the same time".

The show was recorded for the studio audience starting at 1:30 a.m. and broadcast two weeks later, with Mets pitcher Ron Darling delivering a jocular "apology" as the cold open.

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 when SNL started, so that no such incident would happen again.

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

The Japanese version Saturday Night Live JPN, which ran for six months in 2011, was created in part with sponsor Coca-Cola and Lorne Michaels's production company, Broadway Video, and broadcast on Fuji TV networks.

"[223] Some critics have cautioned that the show is too dependent upon visiting guest actors and former SNL cast members – particularly for its impersonations of prominent politicians in the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election races – and is beginning to have difficulty producing relevant, truly funny content.

[243][244][245][246] One incident that garnered widespread media coverage was a 1992 appearance by singer Sinéad O'Connor, in which she ripped up a photo of Pope John Paul II during her performance in an effort to protest the Catholic Church.

[243][247] This led to hundreds of complaints from viewers and widespread criticism at the time,[248] although retrospective opinion of her action has been more positive since the Church's cover-up of abuse became public many years later.

[250] Simpson was the only musical performer in the show's history to unexpectedly leave the stage mid-performance, later apologizing for the incident and explaining that she had lost her voice earlier in the week.

[258][259] Until Bowen Yang's 2019 promotion from writer to on-air performer, there had been only three people of Asian descent in the cast: Fred Armisen (2002–2013) had a Korean grandfather; Rob Schneider (1988–1994) had a Filipina grandmother; and Nasim Pedrad (2009–2014) was born in Tehran, Iran.

Numerous news outlets noted the disconnect of Michaels hiring Yang, an out gay Chinese-American cast member, at the same time as Shane Gillis, who was found to have aired what was perceived as homophobic and anti-Asian jokes and slurs on his podcast.

[276] In 2004 former cast member Jay Mohr released his memoir Gasping for Airtime: Two Years in the Trenches of Saturday Night Live[277] about his struggles during his two seasons on the show between 1993 and 1995, dealing with getting sketches on-air and the intense work schedule.

A cast album was released in 1976 on the Arista label including the song "Chevy's Girls" and comedy bits from the show (Weekend Update, "Emily Litella", "Gun Control");[298] it was later re-issued on CD and MP3 download.

On January 16, 2025, the four episode documentary series SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night, featuring rare footage and interviews with more than 60 contributors—including cast members, writers, and execs—became available to stream on Peacock.

[313] Two Wild and Crazy Pies, based on the catchphrase of the recurring Festrunk Brothers, was introduced in September 2014,[314] followed by Wayne'Swirled, which was inspired by the eponymous Wayne's World in February 2015.