“Saturday Night Live” is enjoying its highest-rated season in two decades, and it’s going to finish it out by doing something the series has never done before: go live, coast to coast.
Usually, SNL airs live on the East Coast at 11:30 p.m., and then rebroadcasts in each time zone. But the final four episodes of this season will air simultaneously — meaning you Californians get to watch SNL at 8:30 p.m.
Oh, and Melissa McCarthy, whose White House press secretary Sean Spicer impersonation has been a surprise breakout moment this year, will host on May 13.
SNL’s take on President Trump and his administration has coincided with a boost in headlines and viewers. NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt’s assertion that SNL “is part of the national conversation” is sorta difficult to refute, given the president himself has taken time to tweet about how much he dislikes Alec Baldwin’s impersonation of him.
“We thought it would be a great idea to broadcast to the west and mountain time zones live at the same time it’s being seen in the east and central time zones,” Greenblatt said in a statement. “That way, everyone is in on the joke at the same time.”