Sketch Comedy and variety hours weren’t exactly novel concepts to American TV audiences circa October 1975. There had been Your Show of Shows and The Ed Sullivan Show, and The Carol Burnett Show was still airing. But the format was due for a revitalization.
Enter Saturday Night Live.
Created by an upstart Canadian writer named Lorne Michaels, the 90-minute NBC show broadcast live from New York City’s Rockefeller Plaza dared to go against the establishment with edgy celebrity impressions and cutting takes on the news. Its renegade “Not Ready for Prime Time Players” championed truth to power by speaking directly to a younger audience. Nope, this was not your parents’ late-night comedy.
But Saturday Night Live wouldn’t be taking up all these emmy pages in 2025 if it had only sizzled during the disco era. Now in its 50th season, the show has thrived by consistently generating iconic characters, images and catchphrases, plus a Hall of Fame’s worth of beloved stars, from Chevy Chase to Eddie Murphy to Will Ferrell to Tina Fey to Kate McKinnon. Perhaps most impressive — or, in Church Lady terms, most special — the show still manages both to respond to the cultural zeitgeist and to create it. No wonder SNL is the most-awarded TV program in Emmy history, with 95 trophies ... so far.
“I’ve been forced to believe it’s the 50th season because I was there for most of it,” Michaels says, calling from his office two days before the final episode of 2024. “But we still take it one week at a time. The great part of doing the show is that whatever happened last week, you’re on to this week.”
Watch the exclusive interview with the cast of SNL during the emmy cover shoot.
Certainly a golden anniversary is worthy of a timeout and a prolonged celebration. The show’s weekend extravaganza starts February 14 with SNL50: The Homecoming Concert, an all-star event from Radio City Music Hall, streaming live on Peacock at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. Then on February 16 comes SNL50: The Anniversary Special, a primetime blowout airing live on NBC and Peacock at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT and preceded by a red carpet special. NBC’s four-part docuseries, SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night, streaming now on Peacock, includes chapters on the audition process, the writers’ room, the “More Cowbell” sketch from 2000 and the 11th season — following Michaels’s return after five years away. Also streaming on Peacock is the documentary Ladies & Gentlemen ... 50 Years of SNL Music, codirected by Questlove.
This special season has also been highlighted by a slew of familiar faces: Dana Carvey, Maya Rudolph and Andy Samberg made the election season more bearable with their spot-on political impressions; alums Chris Rock and John Mulaney have returned to host; and a who's who of SNL luminaries (Tom Hanks! Melissa McCarthy!) welcomed Martin Short into the Five-Timers Club. "Season 50 has felt especially electric with so many guest stars," SNL director Liz Patrick says. "And there have been so many great sketches."
Emmy is marking the milestone as well. Behold our cover, featuring all 17 cast members shot by the show's longtime photographer, Mary Ellen Matthews, on a hectic Thursday night after rehearsals for an episode hosted by Rock. "It was a very busy day, so this was quite a feat," Matthews says. The ensemble and behind-the-scenes talent also talked to emmy about the show's past, present and seemingly endless future.
Indeed, while everyone cites various reasons to explain SNL's phenomenal durability, all agree it's built to entertain, inform, challenge and comfort for another half-century. As Michaels puts it, "We're always looking for what's fresh. Life is all about reinvention."
To read the rest of the story, pick up a copy of emmy magazine here.
This article originally appeared in its entirety in emmy magazine, issue #1, 2025, under the title "Larger Than Live."
