“SNL50: NBCUniversal Faces Challenges in Marking 50 Years of Saturday Night Live”

The years-long road that led to last week’s “SNL50” events was more than a complex programming campaign for NBCUniversal. It was a test of the company’s pipes.

The Feb. 14 “SNL50: The Homecoming Concert,” held at Radio City Music Hall, and Feb. 16 “SNL50: The Anniversary Special” are pitch-perfect examples of the kind of distinctive live events that NBCU is counting on to deliver lucrative mass audiences amid the ever-increasing fragmentation of TV viewership.

Exclusive Behind-the-Scenes SNL50 Photos Below

As of Feb. 21, with a few days of delayed viewing and social activity factored in, the anniversary and concert specials, plus the Feb. 16 “SNL50 : The Red Carpet” telecast, have reached 220 million viewers with 3.9 billion minutes viewed across NBC, Peacock, digital and social, according to NBCU research.

The anniversary special, which ran nearly three and a half hours, has been seen by about 20 million viewers, with NBC accounting for about 16 million. The 50th anniversary season of the show overall has sold out all of its linear and streaming ad inventory. Season 50, which still has nearly three months to go, has delivered “record-setting revenue for any ‘SNL’ season in the history of the franchise,” per NBCU.

Spearheaded by “SNL” creator-producer Lorne Michaels, the programming and ballyhoo around SNL50 events offered a chance for NBCU to demonstrate that it can marshal NBC broadcast, Peacock streaming and a handful of digital platforms to deliver a big live turnout. This strategy is key as NBCU pours billions into its new NBA contract, and as it prepares for the divestment of seven linear cable channels, including USA, CNBC and MSNBC, later this year.

In short, NBCU wanted to show that a uniquely NBC event such as “SNL50” could be equal parts celebration and monetization.

“Engineering what became a monocultural moment through SNL50 weekend and beyond highlights the power of the NBCUniversal ecosystem at work,” Donna Langley, chairman of NBCUniversal Entertainment and Studios, told Variety.

“Broadening and event-izing specials across our platforms provides audiences the flexibility to engage with NBC programming on their own terms,” Langley said. “This leads to multiple ‘watercooler moments’ as people watch, and in many cases rewatch, shows, highlights and clips.”

It was also a respectful nod to the ship’s captain. For Langley, a highlight of the SNL50 experience “was the overall energy of the weekend in and around 30 Rock — watching people come together to celebrate Lorne and this iconic institution he created.”

Brian Roberts, chairman and CEO of NBCU parent Comcast, emphasized the importance of “SNL’s” longevity and its lasting influence on American culture.

“It’s hard to put into words the impact Lorne Michaels and ‘Saturday Night Live’ have had over the last 50 years,” Roberts told Variety. “ ‘SNL’ broke the mold, launched countless careers and became one of the most iconic fixtures in television history — it’s a time capsule that has had an indelible impact, capturing the zeitgeist of our culture for decades.”

The opportunity to stitch together a big audience – both live and long tail — with SNL50 was significant because the show already has such a huge footprint across key social platforms (YouTube: 15.5 million subscribers; TikTok: 11.2 million; Instagram: 8.6 million). Its topicality drives a surge of social engagement conversation with every new episode. For all of TV’s expansion, Lorne Michaels and Co. are the only troupers delivering live sketch comedy on a near weekly basis during the traditional September-May TV season.

“We really leaned on this idea of ‘SNL’ being the ultimate piece of IP for how consumers view content today,” Mark Marshall, NBCUniversal’s chairman of global advertising and partnerships, told Variety. “There is no other property that looks anything like ‘SNL.’ So while it’s 50 years old, it is more relevant today than when it launched in 1975.”

The company-wide activity across NBCUniversal and Comcast to support SNL50 approached Olympics-level coordination for the companies. One important lesson that NBCU has taken away from recent Olympics telecasts is the need to hammer on the tune-in message in the final days before an event. Awareness raised over a long promotional campaign is not the same as getting butts in seats at the appointed time.

“You have to really find people leading in to the event itself. So while it was a drumbeat over the past six months as we led into it, a push to really find people in that real tight window leading into the event is what matters,” Marshall said.

The dealmaking around SNL50 kicked off in earnest two years ago after NBCUniversal teased at its spring upfront that “SNL” would have an elaborate 50th anniversary celebration. Those deals included groundbreaking premium advertising pacts for the show throughout the 2024-25 season, a four-day immersive experience at 30 Rock (feel what it’s like to host “SNL”!) and the feature-length, Questlove-helmed documentary “Ladies and Gentlemen: 50 Years of SNL Music,” which debuted Jan. 27 on NBC and Peacock.

It took careful matchmaking to find the right sponsorship partners. Not every company was a good fit with the “SNL” brand and some weren’t prepared to hand control of their advertisements to “SNL” writers. NBCU wound up striking multi-year deals with five presenting sponsors: Allstate, Capital One, L’Oreal Groupe, T-Mobile and Volkswagen of America.

“It was a two-year jouney,” Marshall said. “I give credit to Lorne, as well as the show, because they have been incredible partners. And they wanted to bring [advertising] partners in with the right tone and the right voice of the custom content we created. We wanted it to feel like it was coming from the show about a brand, which is different than the brand coming to the show.”

The success of “SNL50” has reaffirmed NBCU’s faith in the power of live events to drive a range of businesses. While “SNL50” was uniquely endowed with a parade of stars and multi-generational nostalgia, there are other opportunities in sight, Marshall said.

“Live entertainment is probably the most underappreciated element in the marketing mix right now,” he said, citing heightened demand for NBC’s live stalwarts such as “Today,” “The Tonight Show” and “The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.” “We’re seeing a return for marketers who need to find broad reach right before an event. We’re starting to see marketers come back to this idea of saying, ‘I need to reach someone on Tuesday, because I need them to be able to show up on Thursday to come see a movie,’ or whatever that might be.”

SNL50 events had a big ripple effect across other NBCU brands. Video content posted on the major social platforms (YouTube, Instagram, X, Facebook, TikTok) between Feb. 14-Feb. 17 generated more than 750 million video views across nine NBCU labels (SNL, Peacock, NBC, E! News, E! Insider, E! Entertainment, “Today”, “Access Hollywood” and “The Kelly Clarkson Show”). Authorized and unauthorized cips of the show naturally spread far and wide across social media. But one thing that doesn’t travel is “SNL”-related ad inventory.

“That is something we have been very purposeful on over the years, because it’s that important that we control that property,” Marshall said. “Whether it’s on linear or digital or social, the only place you can buy [‘SNL’] is through us.”

Among other fun facts and figures about SNL50 shared by NBC:

** Gen Z-age viewers are spending 8% more time with “SNL”-related content than they did a decade ago.

** Guests in the audience for the Feb. 14 concert at Radio City included Al Franken, Caroline Kennedy, Claire Danes, Dakota Johnson, David Harbour, Diane Sawyer, Jonathan Scott and Zoey Deschanel.

** NBC’s Feb. 15 rerun of the first “SNL” episode, hosted by George Carlin on Oct. 11, 1975, brought in 3.7 million viewers.

** Approximately 200 seats were added to “SNL’s” home at 30 Rock’s Studio 8H to accommodate the starry audience for the Feb. 16 anniversary special, bringing the total number of seats to 452.

** Approximately 2,500 cue cards were used in the three and a half hour show.

** “SNL” cast members from all 50 seasons were present – including Don Novello, aka Father Guido Sarducci

** Guests in the audience for the Feb. 16 special included Bobby Flay, Catherine Oxenberg, Christine Baranksi, Edie Falco, Elliott Gould, Hanson, Meg Ryan, Sandra Oh, Sean Evans, Steve Guttenberg, Susan Lucci, Teri Hatcher, Theo Vonn and Ziwe.

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Here’s a bonus look at vintage “Saturday Night Live” advertisements from the pages of Variety