Saturday Night Live celebrated its 50th anniversary in February with a star-studded concert and an A-list primetime special, a “huge moment” for the NBC late-night show.
Ego Nwodim, who joined the cast in 2018 for Season 44, said during Deadline’s Contenders Television: Documentary, Unscripted & Variety event that the three-hour special February 16 felt like “building up to a wedding.”
“All throughout the season, I feel like we anticipated what the 50th was going to be. We didn’t know. I called it an SNL wedding, [even though] birthday is obviously more fitting. It felt like we were having a wedding, and it was like we’re building up to this wedding,” she said. “We had these episodes leading up to the actual 50th celebration, but all the while just knowing, ‘Okay, we’re working toward this thing, and that is going to be such a huge moment.’ You could just feel it in the air.”
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Mikey Day, who was hired as a writer in 2013 before becoming a cast member in 2016, said he first noticed Season 50 was going to be different with a new logo and opening titles, which was a “constant reminder.” “From the beginning, it was kind of this thing, kind of hanging over the show, like we have this big show in February,” he added.
Day helped kick off the 50th special, playing an ICE agent, alongside Devon Walker, that escorted Martin Short off the stage as he cameoed on Steve Martin’s opening monologue.
The special featured a number of classic sketches including The Lawrence Welk Show, Black Jeopardy!, Close Encounters, a musical sketch from John Mulaney, Debbie Downer and Scared Straight, alongside regular programming such as Weekend Update and some pre-taped sketches.
Stars included Tom Hanks, Pedro Pascal, Ryan Reynolds, Keith Richards, Robert De Niro, Jason Momoa and Meryl Streep alongside former cast members such as Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Eddie Murphy, Garrett Morris, Kristen Wiig, Will Ferrell and Laraine Newman as well as the current cast.
Producer and costume designer Tom Broecker joked that he attended around 8,000 meetings from the summer onwards regarding SNL50. “There were times when I had to remind myself and even tell other people, ‘Look, take the moment in. It’s never going to happen again. I don’t want to be dramatic about it but this is something that will never happen again in the history of television’,” he said.
Saturday Night Live, which sees its 50th season run through May, won six consecutive Emmys in the Outstanding Variety Sketch Series category between 2017-2022. However, the category was reshaped by the TV Academy in 2023, when it began competing to, and losing out to, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. Over the past 50 years, SNL has recorded 331 Emmy nominations and 90 wins.
Check back Monday for the panel video.
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