Steve Carell / Usher
Show History
From SNLWiki
Saturday Night Live (SNL) is an Emmy Award winning weekly late night 90 minute American comedy-variety show based in New York City that has been broadcast live by NBC on Saturday nights since October 11, 1975.
In Canada it is simulcast on the Global Television Network, live in the Eastern, Central, and Atlantic time zones and with recorded broadcasts from NBC stations in the Mountain and the Pacific Time Zones. It is one of the longest-running network entertainment programs in American television history. Each week, the show's cast is joined by a guest host and musical act.
Originally, the show was called NBC's Saturday Night until NBC retitled its show in 1976 (the Saturday Night Live title having been previously attached to a short-lived variety show hosted by Howard Cosell and airing on rival network ABC). The first show with the new title was broadcast on March 26, 1977.
The show - broadcast from Studio 8H at the GE Building (called the RCA Building until 1988) in New York's Rockefeller Center - has been the launching place for many major American comedy stars of the last thirty years. It was created by Canadian Lorne Michaels who, excluding a hiatus from Season 6 through Season 10, has produced and written for the show and remains its executive producer (Jean Doumanian produced most of Season 6, and Dick Ebersol Seasons 7-10).
In 2005, NBC renewed SNL's contract until 2012.
