Saturday Night Live premiered October 11, 1975 broadcasting live from NBC’s StudioH in Rockefeller Center in New York City. Since that first episode, alluded to in Jason Reitman’s film Saturday Night (2024) that captures the 90 minutes leading up to airtime of the inaugural show, SNL has proved a major career stepping stone for comedy performers after launching the careers of several of the original cast members. The sketch comedy show often comments on recent news, headlines, politics and other current events and pop culture with skits alluding to the various goings-on in society.

The show was the creation of Lorne Michaels, who executive produced it through 50 seasons. In that time it has won 101 Emmy Awards, and has received the Peabody Award twice (in 1990 and 2009). Each episode includes a celebrity guest host and a musical guest who performs several songs, though that was not the original format.

Over the years, the ensemble cast of the show has included Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman, Gilda Radner, Bill Murray, Yvonne Hudson, Eddie Murphy, Laurie Metcalf, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Billy Crystal, Martin Short, Joan Cusack, Robert Downey Jr., Anthony Michael Hall, Danitra Vance, Damon Wayans, Dana Carvey, Kevin Nealon, Norm MacDonald, Will Ferrell, Chris Rock, Jason Sudeikis, Mike Myers, Rob Schneider, David Spade, Ellen Cleghorne, Adam Sandler, Sarah Silverman, Jenny Slate, Bowen Yang and many more. Several former cast members have also hosted the show upwards of five times or more.