For the third time his season, NBC’s college football coverage is pushing back the start of Saturday Night Live with host Inde Navarette and musical guest Gracie Abrams across much of the country.
Tonight’s Ohio State-USC game ran long, ending at 11:08 p.m. ET.
Assuming NBC sticks with the same plan as recent weeks, the show will still air live on Peacock and on NBC’s owned and operated stations on the East Coast, while other stations will be left with a decision to make: cut short their regular programming following the game, or delay SNL’s 11:30 p.m. ET start til about 8:41 p.m.
Tonight’s game, NBC’s Big Ten Saturday Night matchup, kicked off at 7:30 p.m. ET from Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
It marked the third episode of SNL to contend with an overrun from NBC’s Saturday night college football coverage. The season premiere on Sept. 26 followed USC-Oregon, which ended 16 minutes late, while last week’s Washington-USC again ran past its allotted window ahead of the Dakota Johnson-hosted episode.
And if three football-related delays weren’t enough of a pattern, all three have had one team in common: USC. The Trojans have now served as NBC’s primetime lead-in to each of SNL’s first four episodes of Season 52.
