Half a century. Think about that for a second. When Saturday Night Live Season 50 kicked off, it wasn't just another year of sketches and weekend updates; it was a massive, clunky, beautiful victory lap for a show that everyone has tried to bury at least once a decade since 1975. Lorne Michaels is still there, somehow, steering the ship at 80 years old, and the energy in Studio 8H feels different this time around. It's frantic.
Everyone keeps asking if this is the end. Lorne’s been cagey about it, honestly. He told Entertainment Tonight a while back that 50 felt like a good number, but then he backpedaled, because why would you walk away from the biggest cultural megaphone in television history right when things are getting weird?
The vibe of Saturday Night Live Season 50 has been defined by a weird mix of nostalgia and high-stakes political theater. You can’t talk about this season without talking about the election cycle that dominated the first half. It wasn't just the usual political impressions. It was a full-blown "Five-Timers Club" style recruitment of Hollywood heavyweights.
The Maya Rudolph Factor and the Casting Gamble
Maya Rudolph coming back to play Kamala Harris wasn't a surprise—it was an inevitability. But the way they leaned into it felt different. Usually, the show tries to build from within the cast, but for the 50th, they went for the throat. They brought in Jim Gaffigan to play Tim Walz, which was a casting choice so spot-on it almost felt like a prank. Then you had Andy Samberg as Doug Emhoff and Dana Carvey—yes, the Dana Carvey from the 80s—returning to play Joe Biden.
It’s a strange strategy.
On one hand, the ratings are huge. People tune in to see the stars. On the other, you have a massive cast of talented repertory players like Bowen Yang, Ego Nwodim, and Kenan Thompson (who is basically the floorboards of the building at this point) fighting for airtime against guests who don't even work there. It creates this friction. You can feel it in the sketches. Sometimes the writing is sharp, biting into the absurdity of 2024 and 2025 politics, and other times it feels like a high-school reunion where the popular kids from twenty years ago showed up and took over the gym.
Why the 50th Anniversary Special is the Real North Star
Everything this season is building toward that three-hour primetime special on February 15, 2026. This isn't just a clip show. The rumors about who is showing up are actually grounded in the reality of the show's massive alumni network. We're talking about a lineage that goes from Bill Murray and Eddie Murphy to Tina Fey and Seth Meyers.
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Expect chaos.
The 40th anniversary was a three-and-a-half-hour marathon that featured everyone from Christopher Walken to Kanye West. The 50th is looking to dwarf that. NBC has basically handed Lorne a blank check for the night. The logistics of getting that many egos and schedules into one building in Midtown Manhattan are a nightmare, but that's where the show thrives. It's the "live" part of the title. Anything can go wrong. Anything usually does.
The Cast Shakeups Nobody Saw Coming
Before Saturday Night Live Season 50 even filmed its first frame, the departures of Punkie Johnson and Molly Kearney signaled a transition. Then Chloe Troast was let go, which honestly confused a lot of die-hard fans because she was a breakout performer in her freshman year.
The new blood—Ashley Padilla, Emil Wakim, and Jane Wickline—had to jump into the deepest end of the pool imaginable.
Jane Wickline, specifically, brought this weird, TikTok-adjacent deadpan humor that feels very 2026. It's a gamble. SNL has to figure out how to stay relevant to Gen Z while keeping the Boomers who have watched since the Ford administration from changing the channel. It’s a tightrope walk. You see it in the "Please Don't Destroy" shorts. Those guys—John Higgins, Martin Herlihy, and Ben Marshall—have become the digital backbone of the show, much like Lonely Island was in the mid-2000s. Their humor is fast, surreal, and deeply self-deprecating. It’s what keeps the show's YouTube channel alive.
The Lorne Michaels Retirement Rumor Mill
Let’s be real. We need to talk about the Succession-style drama happening behind the scenes. For years, the rumor was that Tina Fey would take over. Then it was Seth Meyers. Then maybe Michael Che and Colin Jost would have a go at it.
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Lorne is SNL. He’s the one who approves every joke, every costume, and every guest host. He's famously known for his "notes" delivered in the middle of the night. If he leaves after Saturday Night Live Season 50, the show might actually collapse under its own weight, or it might finally evolve into something entirely new. There’s no middle ground.
Most insiders think he’ll stay. He loves the power. He loves the hunt for new talent. But even he has to admit that 50 years of staying up until 4:00 AM every Sunday morning takes a toll. The 50th season feels like a closing bracket on an era of American comedy.
Weekend Update: The Only Constant
Colin Jost and Michael Che have been behind that desk longer than any other duo in history. It’s wild. Their chemistry is built on a foundation of genuinely trying to make the other person lose their job. The "joke swap" segments during the Christmas episodes have become legendary because they push the boundaries of what NBC's legal department will allow on air.
In Season 50, Update has had to work harder. When the news cycle is moving at the speed of light, a joke written on Tuesday is dead by Saturday. They’ve been doing more "live" reactions, breaking the fourth wall, and leaning into the fact that the world feels like it’s melting. It’s the most honest part of the show.
The Cultural Impact and the "Not Funny Anymore" Narrative
You’ve heard it. I’ve heard it. Your uncle says it every Thanksgiving. "SNL hasn't been funny since [insert year the speaker was 19 years old]."
It’s a tired trope.
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The truth is, Saturday Night Live Season 50 has been remarkably consistent. Is every sketch a winner? God, no. There are some real stinkers. There are sketches that go on three minutes too long and "character" pieces that land with a thud. But that’s the point of the format. It’s an experimental laboratory that has to produce 90 minutes of content every week.
The show's ability to produce viral moments—like the "Beavis and Butt-Head" sketch with Ryan Gosling from the lead-up to the 50th—proves that it still has the pulse of the internet. When SNL hits, it hits harder than anything else on TV. It defines the conversation for the next week.
How to Actually Experience the 50th Anniversary
If you're trying to keep up with everything happening this season, don't just watch the clips on Instagram. You miss the pacing. The show is designed to be watched as a whole, from the cold open to the weird, 12:55 AM sketch where the writers clearly lost their minds.
- Watch the "Live from New York" Documentary Shorts: NBC has been dropping behind-the-scenes looks at the crew, the costume designers, and the set builders. These people are the real heroes. They build entire worlds in six days.
- Follow the Writers: If you want to know why a sketch exists, find the writers on social media. People like Streeter Seidell or the PDD guys often give context that makes the jokes land better.
- The Standby Line: If you're in New York, the standby line for Season 50 is a religious experience. People camp out for days. It’s miserable, it’s cold, and it’s the only way to feel the actual electricity of the building.
- Mark Your Calendar for the Special: February 15, 2026. Clear the schedule. It’s going to be a nostalgic fever dream.
Saturday Night Live Season 50 isn't just a TV show anymore; it's a permanent fixture of the American psyche. It's survived 10 presidents, the rise of the internet, the death of network TV, and countless "cancellation" attempts. It’s still here. It’s still loud. And honestly? It’s still pretty weird. That’s exactly how it should be.
Keep an eye on the host announcements for the spring. There are whispers of a "Legends" month where every host is a former cast member. Imagine a month with Bill Hader, Eddie Murphy, and Kristen Wiig back-to-back. That’s the kind of energy this anniversary deserves. Don't look for a clean ending to this story. Saturday Night Live doesn't do clean endings. It just does "Goodnight, and thank you!" and then starts all over again the next week.
Next Steps for SNL Fans: To stay ahead of the curve, check the official SNL app or the Peacock "SNL 50" hub, which has started archiving specific collections of every "era" of the show. If you're looking for tickets to the remaining Season 50 tapings, remember that the digital lottery typically opens in August, but for this milestone year, limited-run standby "reservations" are being handled through the NBC website on the Friday before each show at 10:00 AM sharp. Be fast—they usually vanish in under 30 seconds.