Although the “Saturday Night Live” cast had a good time performing a live show they awoke Sunday morning to some bad news:
Industry sources said that most of the show’s below-the-line production staff was fired by NBC in light of the writers strike and the fact that the show hasn’t produced a fresh seg since Nov. 3.
The article goes on to note:
“SNL†staffers were “devastated†by the pinkslips, in the words of one laid-off employee, particularly given the Peacock’s move to keep staffers of “Tonight Show†and “Late Night With Conan O’Brien†on the payroll for at least a few more weeks, though those staffs are much smaller than the “SNL†brigade.
A few points here. 1) “The Tonight Show” and “Late Night With Conan O’Brien” are probably around a zillion times more profitable than “SNL” because they are on every night. That’s just a guess. 2) I wonder if the aforementioned live theater version of “SNL” angered the brass?
Whatever the case it looks like NBC is getting nice and cozy for a long strike impasse which is bad news for everyone. For my part, “SNL” is one of my favorite programs on television, though this year started off mediocre. I would also think that at some point the Saturday night slot will have to be filled by something besides “SNL” because they only filmed a few episodes this year. Infomercial anyone?
