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| Funny as on the show? Absolutely |
Seth Meyers, currently SNL's longest tenured cast member (can you believe it?), is showing no signs of letting up. I was fortunate to snag a ticket to one of his stand-up shows last Friday and was thoroughly entertained all night. The amount of content he covered was tremendous: the election, his love life, his trip to las vegas, and Weekend Update. A gained a new level of respect for Meyers after he brought it for a good hour and fifteen minutes. After seeing his performance, I couldn't help but dig into the surprising amount of SNL news surfacing recently.
Bill Hader was recently nominated for the Emmy Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, the first SNLer to be nominated for this award since Eddy Murphy in 1983. In his New York Times interview on the nomination, Hader defers credit to the cast and writers of the show: "I’m only as good as our ensemble is, and as good as our writers are." Coincidentally, he hears about his nomination from some guy riding by on a bicycle. Kristen Wiig earned a Emmy nod as well, for Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. The Show as a whole earned an impressive total of 14 nominations.
Akiva Shaffer, former SNL writer and director of The Watch has assured viewers that the Lonely Island will continue to produce content for SNL. Shaffer hopes the he, along with Andy Samberg and Jorma Taccone will find time in their shedules to meet up and produce more content.
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| Leather Jacket? Check |
Keeping with tradition, NBC confirmed that Saturday Night Live will produce two prime-time specials this fall. These will, of course, be focused on the election and will air on September 20 and 27.
Critics still insist that Jason Sudeikis will be leaving this fall, but there remains no solid evidence to substantiate this claim. To my surprise, one blog even predicts Jay Pharoah could leave. Sudeikis's departure seems more and more likely, but I cannot conceive Pharoah leaving so soon.
With so many changes this summer, several news site have discussed the future of the show (LA Times Article). I agree that SNL is seeing the largest changes since the mid-nineties, but hope is alive in Studio 8h. New talent abounds, and more screen time could push youngsters Taran Killam, Nasim Pedrad, or Kate Mckinnon to step up. The fact is SNL has maintained an audience of about 7 million per show since 2004. There's change coming this fall, but I'm excited for the new possibilities.
