NBC has canceled this weekend’s episode of “Saturday Night Live” due to the writers strike. Repeats will be aired until further notice, the network said.
Pete Davidson was set to host the May 6 show with musical guest Lil Uzi Vert.
The news, which was expected, comes as the various late night shows all plan to go dark starting Tuesday after the WGA called for a strike. Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, John Oliver and Bill Maher are all airing repeat episodes this week.
Meyers, who was head writer at “SNL,” addressed the potential strike last week and recalled working at “SNL” during the last strike.
“If a writers strike happens, that would shut down production on a great many shows, and I’ve been through this before in 2007, 2008,” Meyers said. “There was a very long strike when I was working at ‘SNL,’ and it was really miserable, and it doesn’t just affect the writers, it affects all the incredible non-writing staff on these shows, and it would really be a miserable thing for people to have to go through, especially considering we’re on the heels of that awful pandemic that affected obviously not just show business but all of us.”
The 2007-2008 writers strike hit “SNL” hard as the program fired much of its production staff. Reruns ran for the duration of the strike, which lasted three months.
The finale for the current season of “Saturday Night Live” was due to air on May 20, with a host yet to be announced. But unless a deal is struck between the WGA and the studios, that may not happen.
The last new episode of “SNL” was hosted by Ana de Armas on April 15.
For all of TheWrap’s WGA strike coverage, click here.
Related stories:
All the WGA Strike Locations in L.A. and NYC
Hollywood Writers Strike: All the Impacted Shows, From ‘Abbott Elementary’ to ‘Yellowjackets’
The Sticking Points: Writers Guild Breaks Down Why It Couldn’t Reach a Deal With Studios
