Saturday Night Live won’t be live this week. This Saturday’s episode, which was to have been hosted by alum Pete Davidson with musical guest Lil Uzi Vert, has been cancelled due to the Hollywood writers’ strike, NBC announced on Tuesday. Repeats of the sketch comedy institution will air “until further notice,” according to the network’s statement.
SNL joins a wave of late-night shows that are going dark this week in solidarity with the strike. NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Night With Seth Meyers, CBS’ The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! and HBO’s Last Week Tonight With John Oliver and Real Time With Bill Maher will not air new episodes going forward, TVLine has confirmed. Comedy Central’s The Daily Show will also go dark, according to a report from Deadline. Reruns of the network late night shows will air for the time being.
The Writers Guild of America officially went on strike Tuesday after talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers broke down despite months of negotiation. The WGA’s current agreement with the AMPTP, which represents the nine largest studios in Hollywood, expired on May 1. Among their demands, writers are seeking an acknowledgment of, and correcting for, the way that streaming has affected the work, compensation and working conditions of writers.
In anticipation of a possible strike, some shows (including NBC’s Quantum Leap and La Brea) rolled production on the current season right into the next, so as to bank episodes to offset any lull in output.
