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Saturday Night Live (SNL) is a late-night sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels. It premiered on the NBC Television Network on October 11, 1975, under the title NBC's Saturday Night. The show often satirizes contemporary American popular culture and politics. Saturday Night Live features a two-tiered cast: the repertory members, also known as the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players," and newer cast members, known as "Featured Players." Each week, the show features a host, often a well-known celebrity, who delivers an opening monologue and performs in sketches with the cast. A musical guest is also invited to perform several sets (usually two, occasionally more). Every so often a host or musical guest fills both roles. With the exception of season 7 and several other rare cases, the show begins with a cold open that ends with someone breaking character and proclaiming "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!"
Saturday Night Live is one of the longest-running network programs in American television history, with more than 900 episodes broadcast over five decades. A number of the show's sketches have been developed into feature films, including The Blues Brothers, Wayne's World, A Night at the Roxbury, Superstar, Coneheads, It's Pat, The Ladies Man and MacGruber.
Seasons 1 through 5 are available on DVD in Region 1. Various Saturday Night Live sketches are available in several new media formats, including streaming on Hulu and Netflix. YouTube SNL playlists of individual sketches and segments are available for many SNL episodes, via the show's official YouTube channel.[1] Best-of compilations are for sale through digital video retailers.[citation needed] As of October 1, 2020, the full catalogue of Saturday Night Live episodes is available on the streaming service Peacock, updated actively as new episodes release.
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Seasons: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | Specials | References |
| Season | Episodes | Originally aired | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First aired | Last aired | |||
| 1 | 24 | October 11, 1975 | July 31, 1976 | |
| 2 | 22 | September 18, 1976 | May 21, 1977 | |
| 3 | 20 | September 24, 1977 | May 20, 1978 | |
| 4 | 20 | October 7, 1978 | May 26, 1979 | |
| 5 | 20 | October 13, 1979 | May 24, 1980 | |
| 6 | 13[lower-alpha 1] | November 15, 1980 | April 11, 1981 | |
| 7 | 20 | October 3, 1981 | May 22, 1982 | |
| 8 | 20 | September 25, 1982 | May 14, 1983 | |
| 9 | 19 | October 8, 1983 | May 12, 1984 | |
| 10 | 17[lower-alpha 2] | October 6, 1984 | April 13, 1985 | |
| 11 | 18 | November 9, 1985 | May 24, 1986 | |
| 12 | 20 | October 11, 1986 | May 23, 1987 | |
| 13 | 13[lower-alpha 3] | October 17, 1987 | February 27, 1988 | |
| 14 | 20 | October 8, 1988 | May 20, 1989 | |
| 15 | 20 | September 30, 1989 | May 19, 1990 | |
| 16 | 20 | September 29, 1990 | May 18, 1991 | |
| 17 | 20 | September 28, 1991 | May 16, 1992 | |
| 18 | 20 | September 26, 1992 | May 15, 1993 | |
| 19 | 20 | September 25, 1993 | May 14, 1994 | |
| 20 | 20 | September 24, 1994 | May 13, 1995 | |
| 21 | 20 | September 30, 1995 | May 18, 1996 | |
| 22 | 20 | September 28, 1996 | May 17, 1997 | |
| 23 | 20 | September 27, 1997 | May 9, 1998 | |
| 24 | 19 | September 26, 1998 | May 15, 1999 | |
| 25 | 20 | October 2, 1999 | May 20, 2000 | |
| 26 | 20 | October 7, 2000 | May 19, 2001 | |
| 27 | 20 | September 29, 2001 | May 18, 2002 | |
| 28 | 20 | October 5, 2002 | May 17, 2003 | |
| 29 | 20 | October 4, 2003 | May 15, 2004 | |
| 30 | 20 | October 2, 2004 | May 21, 2005 | |
| 31 | 19 | October 1, 2005 | May 20, 2006 | |
| 32 | 20 | September 30, 2006 | May 19, 2007 | |
| 33 | 12[lower-alpha 4] | September 29, 2007 | May 17, 2008 | |
| 34 | 22 | September 13, 2008 | May 16, 2009 | |
| 35 | 22 | September 26, 2009 | May 15, 2010 | |
| 36 | 22 | September 25, 2010 | May 21, 2011 | |
| 37 | 22 | September 24, 2011 | May 19, 2012 | |
| 38 | 21 | September 15, 2012 | May 18, 2013 | |
| 39 | 21 | September 28, 2013 | May 17, 2014 | |
| 40 | 21 | September 27, 2014 | May 16, 2015 | |
| 41 | 21 | October 3, 2015 | May 21, 2016 | |
| 42 | 21 | October 1, 2016 | May 20, 2017 | |
| 43 | 21 | September 30, 2017 | May 19, 2018 | |
| 44 | 21 | September 29, 2018 | May 18, 2019 | |
| 45 | 18[lower-alpha 5] | September 28, 2019 | May 9, 2020 | |
| 46 | 20 | October 3, 2020 | May 22, 2021 | |
| 47 | 21 | October 2, 2021 | May 21, 2022 | |
| 48 | 18[lower-alpha 6] | October 1, 2022 | April 15, 2023 | |
| 49[2] | 20 | October 14, 2023 | May 18, 2024 | |
| 50 | 22 | September 28, 2024 | 2025 | |
Seasons 1–30 (1975–2005)
Season 31–present (2005–present)
- Number of episodes reduced due to Executive Producer Lorne Michaels taking a year off and the 1981 Writers Guild of America strike
- Number of episodes reduced due to the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike
- Number of episodes reduced due to the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike
- Number of episodes reduced due to the breakout of the COVID-19 pandemic
- Number of episodes reduced due to the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike
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