Proof that Saturday Night Live is still appointment television in Canada came this past weekend. In much of the country, the 52nd season premiere of the series — and first ever on Bell/CTV — was bumped 16 minutes by a college football game overrun in the US.
Hard to say if that will tackle CTV’s SNL launch for a loss, ratings-wise. In the off season, Bell Media swooped in and recovered the series after it was fumbled by financially challenged broadcast rival Corus Entertainment. Global had been the home of SNL for 51 seasons, an important ad revenue tentpole thanks to the series’ younger demos. Global acquired the rights to the Lorne Michaels-led sketch series way back when it launched in 1975, a year-and-a-half after Global survived a rocky start in January of 1974.
Jump ahead half a century and, with the series switch to a new broadcast base in Canada, the college football overrun had viewers cursing their PVR’s. The SNL simulcast on NBC always starts promptly at 11:30 p.m. Instead of a cold open sketch, Eastern Canadians watching on CTV saw a rerun of Seinfeld. Viewers watching on Bell satellite or Fibe got to see US commercials and promos.
Complicating the simulcast was the fact that NBC allowed their New York flagship station WNBC (as well as their streaming service Peacock) to stick with SNL at 11:30 while many NBC affiliates across the US stayed an extra 16 minutes until the football game concluded.
The delay also affected the start of CTV’s national newscast in parts of Canada. Beau Hajavitch messaged on X that, in all his years watching television, “CTV National News was at 11 p.m. No exceptions. SNL finally breaks that. I never dreamed that would happen.”
The Saturday Night Live 52nd season premiere was hosted by NBA Finals All-Star Jason Brunson of the New York Knicks, with musical guest KATSEYE. Next weekend’s guests are host Dakota Johnson and musical guests Turnstile.
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