Saturday Night Live - Broadcast

Broadcast

The show usually begins at 11:29:30 p.m. Eastern Time (10:29:30 p.m. Central Time), unless a delay occurs. The show broadcasts for one and a half hours, ending at 1 a.m. For the Mountain (except for KSNG and KSNK because even though they are counties in Kansas in the Mountain time zone, they are in the Wichita Market, they air at 9:29:30 p.m. Mountain Time) and Pacific time zones, NBC airs the prerecorded live show usually unedited, mistakes notwithstanding. Since the first opening in 1975 with Michael O'Donoghue, Chevy Chase, and John Belushi, the show has normally begun with a cold open sketch which ends with one or more cast members breaking character and proclaiming "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!", launching the opening credits.

NBC and Broadway Video both hold the underlying rights to the show, while the copyright to every episode lies solely with NBC. From 1990 until 2004, Comedy Central and its predecessor Ha! re-aired reruns of the series, after which E! Entertainment Television signed a deal to reruns. Abbreviated thirty and sixty minute versions of the first five seasons aired as The Best of Saturday Night Live in syndication beginning in the 1980s and later on Nick at Nite in 1988. In September 2010, reruns of most episodes post-1998 began to air on VH1.

Because SNL has been a huge success in America, other countries have created their own versions of the show, including Spain, Italy and Japan. Spain's version of show was short lived, only lasting a few episodes which aired on Thursdays and not Saturdays as the title suggested. This version copied heavily from the American version, in that they did their own versions of sketches that were already done on the original series. Unlike Spain's version, Italy's was a success. Saturday Night Live From Milan, as it is called, is currently airing its fourth season. SNLFM follows the original format, but uses new material not done already on the American version. The Japanese version Saturday Night Live JPN, which ran for six months in 2011, was created in part with Lorne Michaels' production company, Broadway Video and broadcast on Fuji TV networks. The show followed the same format with a few minor differences, being only 45 minutes long and hosted by a permanent host. The cast was made up of seasoned comedians who take center stage and newcomers who play the background roles. It was broadcast once a month, and ended after six episodes, as planned from the start. On December 3, 2011, South Korea's Saturday Night Live KOREA debuted on TVN. SNL Korea's season will last eight weeks. SNLK follows the format of the original but it has new sketches. It has its own versions of SNL Digital Shorts and Weekend Update. The show features musical guests who appear once at the beginning and once near the end of each episode. SNL is aired in The Middle East and North Africa on OSN Comedy every Saturday night, one week after it airs in the U.S.