When President Joe Biden pulled out of the 2024 race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris instead, many reacted in the same, gloriously sign-of-the-times way: taking toSaturday Night Live’s official YouTube channel to comment that Maya Rudolph was about to be “booked and busy.” Well, either we’re all a little bit clairvoyant or the 20-something intern who runs their socials passed the information along because not long afterward, Deadline announced thatRudolph would be returning to reprise her role.
SNLisn’t the only example of folks processing this major political event through media. Viewership of the political satireVeepwent up some 350% in the first week following the news. The series has a storyline in its second season about Vice President Selina Meyer learning that her POTUS would no longer be running for a second term. The creator ofVeep, Armando Iannucci,thus called comparisons “inevitable.“The explosion inVeep’s numbers could mean great things forSNL, too. Viewers were polled during the Actors and Writers' Strikes in 2023 when the normally weekly fixture was off the air, and, according toNews Week, 50% said that they didn’t miss the show “at all.“The overwhelming support for Rudolph’s return could be exactly the revamp thatSNLneeds.
How Is SNL Struggling, Exactly?
Saturday Night Live
To some extent,the sentiment thatSNL"just isn’t the same anymore” has been around for almost as long as the show has. Every generation thinks that the era they watched growing up was the best one. A cursory Google search will show countless articles and social media postsranking the casts. In a blog post fromConsidering Outloud, the writer wisely points out that the reason for this phenomenon is that when you’re in your teens, you’re in the process of hardwiring those things you find entertaining and funny. If you catchSNLduring this time, it will likely influence your sense of humor into adulthood.
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This may also help to explain the show’s age demographics.Parrot Analyticsinsights show that most of the audience are from Gen X, loyal fans who would’ve first caught the show live on TV in their youth. These percentages decrease more and more as the generations go on, with only 19% or so being from Gen Z. To be fair,SNLbeing Gen Z-lite could be a microcosm of the wider traditional media landscape. Folks Gen Z and younger tend to consume a media diet largely comprised of TikTok and YouTube, too.TV then simply takes up a smaller piece of the pie as a result. Still, this statistic is worrisome. IfSNLdoesn’t start making moves to appeal to younger generations, they may not have surefire longevity anymore.
Will Maya Rudolph Alone Be Able to Revive SNL?
In short, she might. Multiple sketches involving the former cast member have garnered 16 million+ views on YouTube. This is more than doubleSeason 49’s viewing averageof 7.2 million viewers an episode, which is already up from the season prior.Saturday Night Live’s YouTube channel is no stranger to virality, but most of those videos are older than five years old. The Kamala Harris sketches are more recent.Another interesting fact of note is that many of those clips are political satire, demonstrating that this is whereSNLthrives.
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Besides, Maya Rudolph’s return has become such a “moment.” She was trending on X (formerly Twitter) after the news that Biden was dropping out broke. On TikTok, users also celebrated the news. User simplysimone made an interesting TikTok speculating that because Rudolph hasalso played Beyoncéin the past, and Beyoncé just cleared her song “Freedom” to be used by Harris during her campaign, there could be some extremely hilarious tie-ins there, as well.
Audiences have long since called for late-night comedy, be it talk shows orSNL, to be updated with the times. ThisSalonarticle proposes that it could be done with more subversive material, likeLast Week Tonight with John Oliver. Others have urged late-night shows to diversify their hosts/casts — although that should equally apply to their behind-the-camera personnel, particularly their writers.
In thecase ofSNLspecifically, they may also (ironically) need to get back in touch with what made the show so great in the first place. Bringing back a powerhouse like Maya Rudolph to do political comedy is a terrific place to start.Saturday Night Liveairs Saturdays at 11:30/10:30c on NBC and is available for streaming the next day onPeacock.
