‘Saturday Night Live’ to Stay Live Coast-to-Coast

Saturday Night Live will again air simultaneously around the country starting with the season premiere Sept. 30. Each episode will air at 11:30 Eastern, 10:30 Central, 9:30 Mountain and 8:30 Pacific. For the Mountain and Pacific time zones, SNL will be repeated at 11:30 p.m.

The live coast-to-coast airings that began in April grew 11% in live plus same day ratings versus what SNL was averaging earlier in the season (8.3 million vs. 7.5 million, according to Nielsen). NBC says the increase indicates strong interest in the formerly tape-delayed markets to see SNL live.

Saturday Night Live won 9 Emmys this year, the most of any program.

Related: NBC Wins September to September Ratings Race in Viewers 18-49

This will be the show’s 43rd season on NBC. Ryan Gosling hosts the premiere and Jay-Z is the musical guest.

Saturday Night Live is produced in association with Broadway Video. The creator and executive producer is Lorne Michaels.

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.