In what has become a quadrennial tradition for Saturday Night Live, the show will be breaking with its usual production schedule this fall ahead of the presidential election.
While SNL normally produces just three episodes in a row before taking a one- to two-week break, it’s planning an initial run of four episodes this year, beginning with its season premiere on September 28.
It’ll then take a one-week break on October 26, before returning for a three-week run on November 2, just three days before the election.
This won’t be the first time the show has aired an extended run of live episodes ahead of a presidential election. Between 2004 and 2016, it produced four episodes in a row each election year. In 2020 it upped the ante even further, first announcing five episodes in row leading up the election, and later adding a sixth episode the week after the election.
With political humor a mainstay of SNL going back to its earliest days, it only makes sense that the show would try to wring as much comedy out of the lead-up to the election as possible. Still, it’s a balancing act, with the show’s grueling work week taking a progressive toll on its staff over its multi-week runs.
After that six-week run in 2020, an exhausted Lorne Michaels and team are said to have vowed to never attempt as long a run of consecutive episodes again.
On top of its initial four episode run, SNL also has a primetime election special in the works for this fall. Though details are scarce, if past tradition holds, that’ll mostly be a clip show. It’s expected to air sometime in the last week or two before the election.
