TVSquad

Totally agree. My coworkers keep telling me to watch SNL, and I keep replying that it is TOO LONG. I fast forward through most of the lousy stuff to get to the funny anyway, it makes no sense for SNL to be the longest show on television. I even like Jonah Hill, but my God, when your host is reading ALL of his lines off of a teleprompter, is it really THAT funny?

I thought he was an actor, apparently he isn't.

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The Tonight Show used to be 90 minutes long and it was shortened to 1 hour so maybe it will work for SNL.

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They should cancel it altogether. It's sad when daily late night shows have better material than a once weekly program. Even the best SNL sketches from this season are lame at best. The show has become second-rate talent reading badly written sketches off of cue cards. I watch the show every week, and at the end of each show, I wonder why I waste my time with it.

Cancel it and replace it with Magic Bullet ads. They'd be more entertaining.

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I actually like the last half hour. That's when they try the weirdest stuff, and, sure, 9 times out of 10 it bombs, but that one time out of ten is usually the funniest thing they ever do.

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Just a note: here in Australia, they only show a 60 minute version (although it should be noted we have less ads per hour than you guys).
The sixty minute show runs pretty well, you only get one song from the musicians, which is fine by me.
Whenever I have watched SNL either when I've been in the states, or a US copy, I do feel like it goes on forever and ever.
I say go with the sixty minute version, and tighten everything up.

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I have to agree with keeping the weird stuff. Sure it often bombs, but when it hits, it's the stuff that gets talked about for a long time.

I'm all for cutting the musical guest. No band has ever made me tune into SNL, and very few of them are even good in the skits.

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Everyone finds different humor in different bits. I tend to find myself disagreeing with TVSquad about which was a good episode. Tina Fey I was underwhelmed, Ellen Page I thought went slightly better overall, Amy Adams was quite good, and Jonah Hill was awful.

So people will always complain no matter what or how much content the show puts out.

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In theory it seems sensible considering their average poor broadcast these days, but I think a shorter show would likely mean a cut in staff in both writing and performers. Thus, you would likely be back to filling 60 minutes with a smaller group of people with roughly the same success rate they currently have.

I don't think musical acts being cut to 1 song would matter at all as they have no trouble appearing on the late night talk shows for 1 song.

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When I started watching SNL in high school (~10 years ago), they would have weekend update before the first musical performance, which would end sometime around 12:25. I assumed that was the end of the show, it was another year or two before I kept watching and found out there was another half-hour. They've since moved up both musical performances though, to somewhere around 11:50 and 12:35.

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E! Entertainment Television already runs repeats of SNL for 30 minutes and that seems to do well, so a 60-minute version would work very nicely. It would probably also be incentive for writers - with only an hour of air time, only the best would be seen by the viewing public.

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I think this is a bad idea.

First, you're presupposing that the show was ever lean and mean. It was never that. Even in the years when it was considered a pop culture sensation, they had plenty of clunkers. But that's the thing about a live sketch show that's produced weekly, you're going to have sketches that just don't work and then you'll have flashes of brilliance.

Wayne's World started as a "10 to 1:00" sketch. Meaning, it first aired at 12:50. The Bill Brasky sketches were almost always "10 to 1:00". You lose the opportunity to try new things to see if they work if they went to only an hour.

Besides, going to an hour would mean after your musical guest (who would now only play once) and Weekend Update, you only have about 20 minutes left out of a 44 minute hour.

No, SNL should stay the same way it always has been. 90 minutes and not afraid to try things. Sure, it's always more hit than miss, but I don't want to miss the hits.

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I was going to say exactly what Joe above me said -- people forget that the show has always had sketches that are great and sketches that totally bomb, but as time goes on we only remember the great ones.

People long for the "Will Ferrell era", but those were the worst years for the show, I think. I've been a fan of the show since the early 90s (and enjoyed stuff from before then, too), and most of the time they were batting around .250 during that era. Even my favourite cast, which was around 92/93, were probably only batting around .500 or so. And some of the crap that came out of even the original cast was pretty awful -- but people don't remember that stuff, because those guys and gals are comedy legends.

Live comedy is never perfect, and those who know comedy understand that. It's what makes the great sketches and jokes that much better.

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In the age of DVR, 90 minutes is fine. I never see it "Live" anyway (I'm on the West Coast). When I fast forward through the commercials, musical guests I don't like, and skits that go on too long, I end up watching a 60 minute show anyway!

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"Fewer ads" not "less ads."

Other than that, I agree with everything you say. And lord would I be happy if there were only one song from the musical guest. I fast forward through those as it is.

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I agree, someone said this last week, and it's a good idea.

Just have 3-4 good skits and only have the musical guest play one song badly.

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I think tastes are so completely different that everybody gets 60 minutes worth of comedy from this 90 minute show.

If they cut it I think everybody loses. Look at the reviews here. Stuff that the reviewer hates I totally like and vice versa.

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1. Lorne would never go for it.

2. Some of the best sketches of the last five years have come in the last half hour, if not dead last. Two that come to mind: Alec Baldwin's "Always Be Cobbling" and the "There Will Be Blood" parody from a few weeks ago. I also like Samberg's "Jogger from the 1980s" filler.

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SNL is still on? Who knew?

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Fire Seth Myers and offer Tina Fey a truckload of money to come back as head writer. The show has been terrible since she left.

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