Saturday Night time Live has jumpstarted dozens of comics’ careers over its historic fifty-year run on tv, and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down because it returns for the 2025 TV schedule. Nevertheless, touchdown a job on the long-lasting selection sketch present is loads more durable than one may appear — simply ask Emmy winner Jennifer Coolidge, who was rejected after auditioning. In actual fact, many comedy giants who got here out of the present, like Andy Samberg, have expressed how terrifying that specific job audition really is.
For the primary time on this scale, a lot of SNL’s most well-known alumni are coming collectively to speak about what it was like engaged on the present within the Peacock unique documentary SNL50: Past Saturday Night time. The four-part documentary will cowl every part from the historical past of the present to deep dives into a number of the hottest sketches of all time, nevertheless it’s additionally an opportunity for present and former solid members to replicate again on how they ended up on the all-time nice sketch sequence within the first place.
Solely one of the best of one of the best make it to Saturday Night time Reside, which is why the present has such an amazing monitor file; nevertheless, with that comes an immense type of strain to not blow your audition. Andy Samberg will get maybe probably the most candid about his tryout expertise within the trailer, sharing:
My first audition, I threw up.
Samberg spent seven years as a solid member on SNL and is essentially credited for popularizing the present’s Digital Shorts however judging by his quote; it wasn’t a simple gig to get. Ignoring the truth that he really threw up, the extra attention-grabbing tidbit of his quote is the truth that he needed to audition greater than as soon as. It’s onerous to think about the SNL casting administrators not seeing his comedic expertise in a single audition, however that’s simply how critical they’re about solely casting one of the best of one of the best.
Different SNL greats shared related anecdotes that indicated how terrifying it’s to audition for the present, like Pete Davidson, who shared that his audition course of was “terrifying.” Even Kenan Thompson, the longest-running Saturday Night time Reside solid member, cringes on the considered his preliminary audition, saying:
It’s a miracle I’m sitting right here proper now.
Amy Poehler additionally seems visibly uncomfortable within the trailer when she’s requested to look at her audition tape, telling the documentary producers, “That’s sufficient,” after merely watching her introduction.
Whereas the spotlight of the trailer for me was listening to the comics replicate on the audition course of, there’s a ton of nice teases for what’s to come back within the four-part sequence. Test it out:
SNL50: Past Saturday Night time will begin streaming on Peacock on January sixteenth, which is ideal timing because the fifth season of the reside sketch present has but to reach in post-primetime. Nevertheless, avid followers of the present ought to mark their calendars for February sixteenth, when the official three-hour fiftieth anniversary particular is ready to air on NBC.
Within the meantime, you’ll be able to relive each episode of Saturday Night time Reside by streaming them with an lively Peacock subscription.