Saturday Night Live could be axed by NBC when its elderly creator and producer Lorne Michaels finally steps down from the money-losing show, an expert predicted.
Robert Thompson, who founded the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University, shared the gloomy forecast after Stephen Colbert’s talk show was canceled by CBS.
He thinks NBC may be moved to axe legendary sketch comedy show SNL and Michaels’ other shows for the network – The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Night With Seth Meyers – when the 80-year-old mogul decides to retire.
Speaking days after CNBC revealed SNL, Fallon and Meyers lose a combined $100 million a year, Thompson said, ‘(Lorne Michaels) cant keep doing that forever.
‘If he decides to retire, or cant do those shows anymore, NBC would be [in] an interesting position.’
He continued, adding the network would have the ‘opportunity to get out of late night in one fell swoop instead of overhauling every program.
‘It would be the easiest time to say, we had a good run.’
Thompson told the Daily Mail part of the reason the shows are ‘vulnerable’ is the challenge that NBC faces in replacing Michaels, a visionary who first created SNL in 1975.
NBC could soon flee the late-night genre completely by scrapping a trio of shows that includes Saturday Night Live. The show’s current cast is seen here
The Peacock network’s suite of shows – Saturday Night Live and those of Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers – all share an executive producer, Lorne Michaels
‘It would be a big commitment,’ he said of the network staying in the late night game. ‘I’m not sure the people at NBC have that.’
SNL remains a cultural zenith that attracts the most elite of A-list celebrities to guest host and perform musical acts. It’s also been a launch pad for some of the greatest names in comedy – Tina Fey, Will Ferrell, Maya Rudolph and Chris Rock, to name a few.
It costs $4 million an episode to produce, or around $100 million a year annually.
The show attracted around 8 million live viewers per episode for its 25th anniversary celebrations and millions more on streaming, as well as on its social media channels.
But even those numbers are not enough to help SNL or its stablemates Fallon and Meyers cover their costs with traditional advertising, CNBC reported, which has declined across the board as viewers shun linear TV for streamers.
An insider pushed back against the $100 million loss figure when contacted by the Daily Mail.
They insisted the loss figure ‘comes down quite a bit’ when other revenue streams including digital advertising are factored in, while effectively conceding that the shows still fail to break even.
The axing of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert earlier this month also breaks an important media taboo, with talk shows like his once considered untouchable juggernauts.
Colbert’s show was reportedly losing $40 million a year, with his soon-to-be-former employer CBS now setting a precedent that could make it easier for rivals NBC and ABC to get rid of their long-established but loss making shows.
Meyers’ nightly program, Late Night with Seth Meyers, is averaging roughly 900,000 total viewers this year, as well as 111,000 in the hallowed 25 to 54 age demographic.
Fallon’s Tonight show, meanwhile, rakes in 1.19 million viewers on average and 157,000 in the demographic, despite airing an hour earlier.
The show failed to outpace 11:30pm ET rival, Jimmy Kimmel, who scored 1.77 million viewers for ABC.
Kimmel’s show doesn’t cover its costs from regular TV advertising but is profitable when other revenue streams are taken into account, an insider told CNBC.
SNL alum Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show could also be tossed in what media expert and professor Robert Thompson described as ‘one fell swoop’
Meyers’ show follows Fallon’s just after 12:30am, and could follow Stephen Colbert’s into cancellation, Thompson said
Unnamed insiders told both CNBC and Puck that Colbert’s show had been losing $40 million a year due to declining ad revenue before his bosses made the call to cancel it a few weeks ago. Other sources who spoke with Variety and CNN insisted the same, without providing figures
Michaels’ original brain child, SNL, remains highly rated, after 50 years on the air with its original showrunner. He stepped in to produce Fallon and Meyers’ shows in 2014, after they succeeded their respective predecessors. Pictured: Michaels in an early SNL skit in 1976
Choosing to axe SNL, Fallon, Meyers or Kimmel would also prompt allegations of political maneuvering.
Colbert is among those who subscribes to the view that his show was canceled to placate President Donald Trump, who recently settled for tens of millions of dollars with CBS parent company Paramount.
Trump accused the network’s flagship current affairs show 60 Minutes of editing an interview with Kamala Harris during the presidential campaign to make her look better – a claim that CBS said was ‘completely without merit’.
Paramount owner Shari Redstone this month finally won approval from the Federal Communications Committee (FCC) to sell the corporation to Skydance for $8 billion.
The 60 Minutes settlement with Trump was widely seen as a move to grease the wheels of that deal.
But multiple insiders insist that Colbert is flattering himself by suggesting his cancelation is for the same reason.
SNL, Fallon, Meyers and Kimmel have also infuriated Trump with their jokes and cracks at the president’s expense.
Ironically, that same obsession may ultimately hasten their demise, by keeping conservative viewers away and boring loyal liberal viewers fed-up with hearing constant monologues about the president.
The Daily Mail has contacted NBC for comment but has not heard back.