“Saturday Night Live” will finally live up to its name and be truly live for the whole country.
The Lorne Michaels-produced sketch comedy staple has always aired in real-time for the East Coast and Central timezones, but would operate on a tape-delay for the Mountain Time region and West Coast. That will no longer be the case — at least, not for the final four episodes of Season 42.
“‘SNL’ — enjoying its most popular season in two decades — is part of the national conversation, and we thought it would be a great idea to broadcast to the west and mountain time zones live at the same time it’s being seen in the east and central time zones,” said Robert Greenblatt, chairman, NBC Entertainment. “That way, everyone is in on the joke at the same time. Kudos to Lorne Michaels, the producers and cast for making ‘SNL’ one of the most relevant and anticipated shows in the zeitgeist.”
Here are the hosts for the rest of the season:
April 15 – Jimmy Fallon
May 6 – Chris Pine
May 13 – Melissa McCarthy
May 20 – Dwayne Johnson
Musical guests for each episode will be announced at a later time.
And here’s the show’s new schedule:
11:30 p.m. Eastern
10:30 p.m. Central
9:30 p.m. Mountain
8:30 p.m. Pacific
For the Mountain and Pacific time zones, “SNL” will be repeated at 11:30 p.m.