On Sept. 28, Saturday Night Live debuted season 50. Hosts and musical guests announced for this season include stars like Chappell Roan and Ariana Grande. A few weeks after the show’s new season premiered, the film Saturday Night was released in theatres, retelling the story of SNL’s 1975 premiere night. With all the online buzz around the show’s anniversary season and the critical success of Saturday Night, viewers can’t help but wonder: Is SNL relevant again?
Saturday Night Live has been around for decades, and what was once a cultural touchstone has found itself with a diminishing audience and sinking ratings. With opinionated segments like “Weekend Update” and political cold opens, SNL loses viewers to its politics. Additionally, with the increased popularity of streaming services in recent years, viewers are no longer tuning in to late-night live television.
Saturday Night Live has also struggled to keep up with the Gen-Z audience in the past, making them lose out on social media relevancy. Sketches making fun of Gen-Z have isolated the show from younger audiences and made these audiences view the show as cringy and desperate.
However, new hires have helped modernize the show. In 2019, writer Bowen Yang was added to the Saturday Night Live cast, and in 2022, SNL hired Marcello Hernandez. These two cast members would prove to be popular with younger audiences and draw more viewers to the show.
This season, Bowen Yang has already parodied Moo-Deng (TikTok’s favorite pygmy hippo), Chappell Roan, and Charli xcx’s “brat summer.” By writing sketches that keep up with things culturally relevant to Gen-Z, Yang has improved SNL’s online reception, prompting tweets and TikToks about season 50 to circulate heavily.
Marcello Hernandez is also popular with a younger audience, starring in an extremely successful skit with Ariana Grande in which a group of bridesmaids reveal the bride’s infidelity to the tune of Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso.” The sound quoting Hernandez’s character “Domingo” circulated heavily on TikTok, with over 21,000 uses in just a few weeks. By broadening the target demographic of sketches from exclusively boomer & millennial generations to now include Gen-Z, SNL is proving it can still be relevant 50 seasons later.Â
The film Saturday Night, written and directed by Jason Reitman (Director of Juno and Ghostbusters: Afterlife), follows Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Micheals as he navigates the last frantic 90 minutes before the first-ever SNL episode.
Featuring performances from actors popular with Gen-Z audiences like Rachel Sennott (Bodies Bodies Bodies), Dylan O’Brien (The Maze Runner), and Kaia Gerber (Bottoms), SNL is gaining more recognition from younger audiences who want to see their favorite actors on screen. The film also proved successful with critics and is in talks for a Best Picture nomination at this year’s Academy Awards. The film helps restate the cultural importance Saturday Night Live has had for almost 50 years, and its success can only mean good things for SNL’s 50th season.
Although SNL sketches aren’t always hits, audiences should still tune in when they are fans of the host or musical guest. In its 50th season, Saturday Night Live still finds ways to stay relevant and keep audiences laughing. Saturday Night is in theatres now and is the perfect film for viewers who want to learn more about SNL‘s history.
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