Saturday Night Live Wiki:What's SNL?
From Saturday Night Live Wiki
Some of you may have come to this site wanting to know exactly what SNL is. Well, here's your answer:
[edit] The Straight Dope
Saturday Night Live is a 90-Minute comedy/variety show, which airs live weekly on Saturdays, as the name suggests. SNL is broadcast in the US on NBC, and has been broadcast on NBC since October 11, 1975. Canada broadcasts the show on both NBC and Global Canada. Reruns are shown on NBC, Global, E! Entertainment, and, until recently, Comedy Central.
Each week, SNL's cast is joined by a celebrity Guest Host, and a Musical Guest.
The show's first episode aired on October 11, 1975, with comedian George Carlin as host, and Billy Preston and Janis Ian as Musical Guests.
[edit] Structure of the Show
The way the show is set up each week usually goes like this: The first sketch of the night is aired before the opening credits/montage. This is known as the Cold Opening. At the end of the cold opening, one of the characters/castmembers will shout out "Live, From New York, It's Saturday Night!" (as has been done since 1975), thus beginning the show. After which, the Opening Credits are played, with announcer Don Pardo announcing all of the castmembers' names, as the Saturday Night Live Band plays the opening theme and pictures of the cast (and New York).
At the end of the montage, the guest host comes out onstage and delivers a monologue, sometimes which will include appearances by cast members and "audience members" (actually the show's writers there to ask humorous questions). Following the monologue is a commercial parody. immediately after, are real commercials and the first commercial break.
After the commercial break, are a variety of live sketches planned for the show, and around 12:00am, the musical guest performs their first musical number of the night. After another commercial break, SNL's long-running Weekend Update is performed.
Afterwards, more sketches are performed, the musical guest performs once more, a final sketch is acted out, and, finally, the host and musical guest(s) join the cast and crew for the "Goodnights".
