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Join us LIVE immediately after SNL50: The Anniversary Special (https://www.reddit.com/r/LiveFromNewYork/comments/1ir0lj4/live_discussion_february_16_2025_50th_anniversary/) to recap (https://www.datalounge.com/thread/35281362-snl-50th-anniversary-special) one of the biggest night's (https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/151927-s50e13-snl50-the-anniversary-special/) in television history! Host Bill Kenney, and guests Victoria Franso & Sammy Kay take you through the special (https://forum.dvdtalk.com/tv-talk/660548-snl-50th-anniversary-special-%97-2-16-25-8et-5pt-2.html), breaking down (https://officialfan.proboards.com/thread/547065/saturday-night-live-anniversary-special?page=334) how SNL celebrated (https://www.resetera.com/threads/snl50-the-anniversary-special-ot-no-coke-pepsi.1110915/page-10) its first 50 years.

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Welcome to the official Saturday Night Network YouTube channel, where you will find our daily coverage of all things Saturday Night Live.

Podcast hosts, journalists, and superfans get together to talk through how each episode of SNL Season 50 will be remembered compared to all eras of the show.

SNL50: The Anniversary Special was more like a supersized episode than a clip show retrospective (https://www.avclub.com/saturday-night-live-recap-season-50-anniversary)

"SNL50 (https://www.lipstickalley.com/threads/is-anyone-watching-snl-50th.5840536/), even more than the 40th-anniversary special from a decade ago, really did aim to work as a kind… of supersized, normie-friendly, yet insistently inside episode of the show," says Jesse Hassenger. "There was a monologue, Weekend Update, musical guests, and a lot—a lot—of recurring characters.

SNL50: The Anniversary Special draws was watched by 14.8 million (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/tv-ratings-snl-50-sunday-feb-16-2025-1236138810/)

While that is down from the 23.1 million viewers who watched the 40th anniversary special 10 years ago this month, the Sunday three-hour-plus event marked NBC's biggest primetime entertainment telecast in five years, since 18.33 million people watched the 2020 Golden Globes shortly before the pandemic. SNL50 also had the second-biggest non-sports viewership of the 2024-2025 season, after the 15.4 million that watched the Grammy Awards.

ALSO:


Why SNL icons couldn't attend SNL50: Dana Carvey had the flu and Bill Hader had a “longstanding scheduling conflict" (https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/why-dana-carvey-bill-hader-dan-aykroyd-not-snl-50-1236311883/)

SNL alum Victoria Jackson slams SNL50 for its Tom Hanks "Black Jeopardy!" MAGA-bashing skit and for sexual vulgarity (https://www.tmz.com/2025/02/18/snl-alum-victoria-jackson-slams-tom-hanks-maga-skit/)


John Oliver found it hilarious Last Week Tonight's Season 12 premiere competed against SNL50 (https://www.thewrap.com/john-oliver-cracks-up-at-last-week-tonight-premiere-against-snl50/)

“I mean, it wasn’t my idea, but I do find the idea very funny!” Oliver said on The Late Show when Stephen Colbert brought it up, according to The Wrap. “Which do you want to see, as a human being? A celebration of half a century of Saturday Night Live, a joyous celebration of that? Or one man squawking about government eating itself from within?”

SNL denies longtime cue card holder Wally Feresten's claim that Ryan Reynolds changed an SNL50 joke (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/snl-denies-ryan-reynolds-pitched-snl-50-joke-1236141910/)

On Tuesday’s Fifi, Fev and Nick podcast episode, 35-year Saturday Night Live vet Feresten said of Reynolds' joke about his wife Blake Lively's legal battle with Justin Baldoni: "He had a different line in rehearsal, and he pitched that to replace it. So, that was his idea to do it. We wouldn’t want to do anything too controversial unless they were in on it,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. An SNL spokesperson, however, denied Feresten’s claim to The Hollywood Reporter, which points out that Feresten is not a credited writer on the series and isn’t part of the creative process.

Dana Carvey on his SNL50 absence: "I was told not to travel" because I had the flu (https://www.youtube.com/shorts/q6rhqrgX7AM)

The Saturday Night Live icon discussed his absence from Sunday's special on his and David Spade’s Superfly podcast. "I had lingering effects from the flu. So I was told not to travel," Carvey said.