1 of 1- Glen Warren
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SNL is tanking...
I've felt for awhile that the show should be renamed SNL "Cue Card Reading" ... its so painfully obvious...
The two best segments are Che and Jost doing Weekend Update, and the 3 writers who do the extreme "Do Not Destroy" shorts...
Other than that...
- In Phase
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Re: SNL is tanking...
I PVR the show and then watch the cold opening, skip to the host "welcome" bit, and then FF to Weekend Update. The rest... I can usually miss.
I did tour the studio once 
- paterson1
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Re: SNL is tanking...
Glen Warren wrote:
I've felt for awhile that the show should be renamed SNL "Cue Card Reading" ... its so painfully obvious...
The two best segments are Che and Jost doing Weekend Update, and the 3 writers who do the extreme "Do Not Destroy" shorts...
Other than that...
I agree, the cue card reading is really noticeable and has been getting worse over the past few years. The actors are never really looking at each other or the audience during scripted skits, just reading the cards.
Last week's return for SNL did well for numbers with 4.80 million tuning in. Global use to get over 1 million watching in Canada quite often so they likely did well.
I didn't mind Pete Davidson last week and usually find him funny. However he is one of those people that viewers seem to like or don't. I thought he handled the cold opening well speaking on a difficult subject.
Last night however was painful to watch. Bad Bunny has limited English so they used him for a lot of Spanish and Spanglish in skits. His monologue wasn't funny, but those in the audience that understood Spanish seemed to enjoy it. It will be interesting to see how last night's show does. Maybe Bad Bunny will surprise with a sharp jump of Latino viewers for SNL.
Also yesterday SNL was one of the few real shows on US OTA TV. All networks had college football yesterday afternoon, except CBS that had a soccer match on. Saturday evening again all college football on four networks except CBS. For the first time in a few weeks CBS did run repeats with 48 Hours, and NCIS Hawaii then a new 48 Hours at 10pm. No word on SNL ratings as yet.
Last edited by paterson1 (October 23, 2023 10:18 am)
- Glen Warren
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Re: SNL is tanking...
I don't mean to sound crass or intolerant, but I felt like I was watching a feed from Univision last night. (but who knew that Mick Jagger could speak such fluent Spanish?)...
This has been a challenging time in the US Entertainment world... a writer's strike that lasted for five months, and was only settled two weeks ago. The SAG strike is now into its third month,
That said, I think part of the problem with SNL the last few years, has been with the large ensemble cast in addition to the regular core cast. They are all vying for "air or face time"... if there is no sketch opportunity for them, then they pop up on Weekend Update.
The other difference between "back then" and now, is that for the large part the original "Not Ready for Primetime Players" were a part of the writing team. So when it got to air live, they knew their material and hit their marks. The cue cards were always there but were really not needed, as the cast had pitched some of the sketches / characters, thrashed them out, developed them, and finally wrote or help to write for the character or sketch.
John Belushi's "Samurai" character worked due to John being the caricature, and (most often) that weeks guest host playing the straight man to Belushi. Buck Henry was a master at this, and they were some of the memorable skits... Samurai Delicatessen, or Samurai Dry Cleaner... classic
For whatever reason, I find now that SNL relies too much on a formula... almost every week, there has to be some type of game show sketch. Back in the day Bill Murray would be Richard Dawson, and The Cone Heads would be one of the competing families. It worked.... because it was a spot on send up of the real show and its host of the day... but SNL didn't beat it to death every week.
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Thread Starter- Leslieville Bill
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Re: SNL is tanking...
My wife and I record it and watch it every week. It can be hit and miss but Weekend Update never fails to make us laugh.
- Not an industry person. Just a guy with a love of Toronto radio.
- mic'em
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Re: SNL is tanking...
The only sketch I found really amusing was the subway one with the young man asking for a chance at a job. I recall they have done this sketch in past seasons also. The Trump segments are always funny as the actor doing the impersonation is one of the best I have seen.