Just ahead of Saturday Night Live‘s 50th season, Sinclair’s TBD network has inked a deal with NBCUniversal to air episodes from previous seasons of the sketch comedy show on the free digital subchannel, which is available over-the-air to over 97 million US households.
TBD will run classic episodes of SNL pulled from Seasons 4 through 37—a timeframe that includes a wide range of classic sketches, from The Coneheads to Wayne’s World to Celebrity Jeopardy. According to The Desk, these episodes will be the 60-minute edits that used to air on cable channels like Comedy Central, E!, and VH1.
The deal also includes various “Best Of” SNL specials, like those devoted to “The Women of SNL,” Will Ferrell, and John Belushi. TBD will celebrate the launch of its SNL package with an all-day marathon of those “Best Of” specials on Monday, September 30.
The channel also plans to curate holiday-themed episode lineups throughout the year.
“SNL is a cultural institution that has shaped comedy for decades and adding it to our network is a testament to our commitment to bringing the best in iconic, groundbreaking comedies to multicast TV,” said Adam Ware, Sinclair’s SVP of Growth Networks. He went on to state that “SNL is certain to power future ratings growth.” (Ware had teased TBD’s acquisition of a three-word show on Linkedin several months ago.)
Launched as a viral content-focused channel in 2017, TBD has since shifted to airing more comedy series, including Key & Peele, Punk’d, and Whose Line Is It Anyway? The channel is currently carried in 99 of the top 100 DMAs in the US, including the nation’s largest markets–New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Dallas-Ft. Worth. To find the station in your local market, click here.
Digital subchannels like TBD have proven to be fertile ground for vintage late night shows. Antenna TV began capping off its classic TV primetime lineup with episodes of Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show in 2015, and the show proven to be among the channel’s most enduring offerings.
Over the years Saturday Night Live‘s extensive back catalog has found its way across the media landscape, through syndication, cable, DVD, and streaming. Since 2014, NBC has even used the time slot before new episodes of SNL to air older episodes, which they’ve dubbed “SNL Vintage.”
In 2023, NBCUniversal introduced its “SNL Vault” offering to FAST (free ad-supported streaming TV) channels. SNL Vault is a personally curated collection of moments from the show, and has been made available on Amazon Freevee, The Roku Channel, and the company’s own Peacock streaming service. It expanded to Samsung TV Plus earlier this year.
Saturday Night Live’s celebratory 50th season begins September 28.
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