OPINION: Is SNL good anymore? 

“Saturday Night Live,” or “SNL,” is undeniably an American culture classic. In its 47 years, the show launched the careers of countless big names in acting and comedy and has always comedically reflected the culture of the time. However, in the past few years, the show has continuously seen a decline in viewership. The most recent season’s premier dropped 50% below the previous season opener. So, what happened? 

“SNL” is one of my favorite shows ever. I grew up watching new episodes and old sketches on YouTube, but in more recent years I’ve lost a lot of interest and, according to their ratings, so have many others. To me, there seem to be two main reasons why the show just doesn’t work as well as it used to.  

The first reason is the cast and crew. I am absolutely not of the mindset that “SNL” was only funny before the cell phone was invented. While that era was great and launched the careers of comedy legends like Will Ferrell, I don’t consider it the peak of the show.  

In the early 2000’s alone we saw powerhouse cast members like Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Jason Sudeikis, Fred Armisen, Kristen Wiig, Rachel Dratch and many others. Paired with incredible writers like John Mulaney, this period in the show’s history created so many great sketches and characters.  

But in 2013, most of these names left the show. Forcing the show’s head, Lorne Michaels, to hire six new cast members at once, as well as new writers. This led to an awkward period in the show’s history, where new writers had to learn how to write for a new cast and the show itself. A lot of great sketches still came out of this time, but this major change really threw the show off its rhythm and I still don’t think it’s recovered.  

“SNL” currently has one of the largest casts it’s ever had with 21 members. But with only eight sketches per episode, and each sketch really only having about two main roles, one of which usually goes to the host of that week, it’s unlikely most of the cast will be used. Great actors like Kate McKinnon, Cecily Strong, and Kyle Mooney are often unused despite their sketches being some of the best performing on the show’s YouTube channel, as the writers typically default to writing rolls for the same handful of actors because they can do a good impression of a major political figure, which brings me to my second point.  

“SNL” has always been political. I don’t think the show has necessarily become more political in its recent seasons, but I do think the tone has changed. Before Donald Trump was elected president, most political sketches were a lighthearted dramatization of a political figure. The figure was usually aware of their portrayal on the show and often even a part of it. Tina Fey’s portrayal of Sarah Palin is a perfect example. Fey never outright attacked Palin by criticizing her decisions or policies. She stuck to a goofy accent, portraying Palin as sort of a harmless, dim-witted caricature, and Palin appeared on the show in a sketch with Fey, taking part in the jokes. But after 2016, with the arrival of Alec Baldwin’s Trump impersonation, these political sketches became less clever and interesting, and more cliché and lazy as they typically reverted to the same opinions and jokes a lot of the nation was making about the then president.  

So how can the show be fixed? With Trump no longer being president, “SNL” has lost the cow it lazily milked for jokes since 2016. While they still occasionally shove him in sketches, a new impersonator paired with a more relaxed writing style has made him more of a fun appearance recently, which I hope they can continue with when portraying political figures in the future.  

As for the cast issue, I think it’s time for some of the longer running cast members to leave. Kenan Thompson has been on the show for 19 seasons and while he is a great actor, writers tend to give him more roles since they know him better, meaning the new cast members are rarely given the spotlight. These fresh cast members need to be given more significant roles on the show, so they too can have a chance to launch a huge career from the show like so many others before them.  

Tracy Mullinax can be reached at [email protected]