Inside the struggle to reinvent 'Saturday Night Live'
Middle-age is no joke.
And as “Saturday Night Live” has its 50th birthday on the horizon--the show premieres Season 48 on October 1--some are wondering if the years have taken a toll.
Seven of the main cast members have left: Pete Davidson, Chris Redd, Kate McKinnon, Kyle Mooney, Aidy Bryant, Melissa Villasenor and Alex Moffat. Featured player Aristotle Athari is also gone, while Cecily Strong, who seemed to suggest on last season’s finale that she was out, will be returning, according to a source.
As of press time, only four replacements have been announced.
Meanwhile, several large questions loom over the show: Where does it go from here? What happens when creator Lorne Michaels, now 77, finally retires--and when will that be? And has the show lost all its youthful buzz with tabloid favorite Davidson--famous for his romantic life (Kim Kardashian, Ariana Grande, Margaret Qualley, Kate Beckinsale), feuds (Kanye West) and honesty about his mental-health struggles--dropping out?
Multiple sources told The Post that the decision not to replace everyone is calculated, as the large size of last year’s cast--16 repertory players plus five featured cast members--was actually hurting it.
“Their cast last year got to be pretty sizable, but what my understanding from Lorne was, during Covid everyone wanted to stay together. It’s unusual they had such a large cast,” said a TV industry source. “One thing I had heard is that there were so many people last season that they weren’t able to feature people in the way that they wanted to.
“Now, [Michaels] has got to develop new people.”
A spokesperson for Michaels confirmed to The Post: “Because of the pandemic, no one left "for the past couple years”--but that didn’t stop the show from adding newcomers. “The way the series has survived is by renewal. Because if the show doesn’t add people every year, the show isn’t the show.”
Some, like McKinnon, “were natural to leave,” the insider said. “Kate was going to leave forever; obviously, she had a few things on the side”--including voiceover work such as “The Magic School Bus” series. Davidson, meanwhile, has regularly been making movies (“Bodies Bodies Bodies,” “The King of Staten Island”) and Bryant starred on Hulu’s “Shrill.” Redd is set to voice a lead role in a yet-to-be titled project from Michaels’ Broadway Video and Audible and is attached to star in the feature film “Cyber Monday.”
The industry source, however, hinted that there might be more to Redd’s departure, which was just announced this week: “Not the easiest person, to be honest. [There was a need to] calm him down over stuff. [He had] one foot in, one foot out.”
A representative had no comment but a source close to the show said: “Chris Redd is amazingly talented and is always a pleasure to work with.”
According to Asylum NYC improv club owner Norm Laviolette, Michaels and others in his talent acquisition crew have not seem freaked out by what seems like a mass exodus of talent.
As usual, “SNL” casting executives arranged showcase auditions in various cities across the US, including the Asylum in Chelsea. There were 25 performers culled from hundreds of contenders from stand-up stages, the Internet and social media.
“There is no more urgency [than in previous years],” said Laviolette. “It gets tricky when all of a sudden a big percentage of your ensemble moves on. But are all the people leaving on their own accord? Or did ‘SNL’ shepherd some of them out the door? I would argue that if somebody has been there for 12 or 13 years, they are holding a spot for someone.”
Though the valuable and versatile Kenan Thompson has been on the show for 20 seasons, the TV source pointed out that he is an anomaly: “The average time is seven or eight years for how long people stay.”
Speaking of anomalies, it’s been extremely rare for the show to have a tabloid lightning rod like it did with Davidson. “Pete was the hot topic on Weekend Update. Everyone wanted to do sketches with him because he was the guy who got talked about on Page Six,” said Cris Italia, co-owner of the Stand NYC comedy club, told The Post. “He had that impact. [Executives at ‘SNL’] would never say it, but I’m sure they were okay with all the attention. They will never say they want their guys on Page Six, but it helped ratings.”
Backstage at the 2022 Emmy Awards on Sept. 12, Michaels told reporters: “This will be a transition year. Change years are always difficult but always exciting.”
In a New York Times interview this week, he remarked that “Rebirth, that period, it’s painful. I’ve lived through it five or six times. Most people haven’t lived through it more than once or twice. But it’s always bumpy.”
Many in the industry speculate the legendary producer is determined to get to Season 50 and then bow out. Maybe. Sort of.
“He’ll continue until the 50th anniversary year and then he will make a dignified retreat,” said Tom Shales, co-author of “Live From New York,” an oral history of the show. “That is based on my talking to him. I don’t think it is humanly possible to go beyond that. [That] will absolutely be his last year. He’s said as much.
“Lorne will have an office [at the 30 Rock Center headquarters of ‘SNL’] and hang out, but he will feel self-conscious. He’ll keep his office and feel sheepish about being in there. He’ll be the gray old eminence and that is not his style,” Shales, who said that he remains in communication with Michaels, predicted. “He will say, ‘Oh I don’t want to be involved in the weekly show.’ But he won’t be able to resist it. That will bring some complications.”
The industry source, who’s heard Michaels brush off retirement rumors, told The Post, “‘I’m not retiring’ is his thing, but 50 is going to come and he’s going to reconsider — unless he’s having too much fun.”
The Michaels spokesperson told The Post: “Lorne has no plans to retire.”
But if and when he does step down, what happens next for “SNL”?
It is possible that they will completely redo the show so it is not ‘SNL’ as we know it. You probably will still want a cold open and someone saying, ‘Live from New York…’ but you will want to minimize comparisons [between the current version of the show and a new one],” Shales said.
As to who will take the reins, the industry source predicted: “Some of the old alums could take over. You need someone good, with talent; a good producer, a good name in the industry. I don’t think it would be Tina [Fey] but it would have to be someone like that.”
One person it won’t be is Lindsay Shookus, the “SNL” producer who abruptly departed last month after 20 years and had her own tabloid notoriety by dating Ben Affleck on and off from 2017 to 2019. She had been responsible for finding new talent and booking musical guests.
“She herself had debated producing but always backed away from it,” said the industry source, who also called Shookus a “polarizing” figure among the cast and crew.
Shookus had no comment.
Former cast-member Joe Piscopo, who worked on “SNL” in 1980 when Michaels was hiatus as a full-time producer, believes that replacing him will be borderline impossible.
“As long as Mr. Michaels is at the helm, the show is indestructible,” Piscopo told The Post. “He leaves, and you are talking a situation. I don’t know if he can be replaced and if the show can last after his departure. Not a lot of people have the magic glitter that Lorne has. I don’t know how you recover.”
Even this many years in, Michaels remains remarkably hands-on.
“Lorne came down [to watch the auditions],” said Asylum’s Laviolette. “People are surprised that Lorne still comes down and watches. He would have every reason to put it on cruise control and have someone else vetting the first 25 people. That he is still down there tells me that the guy still loves it.”
Which doesn’t necessarily mean he shows it. Whenever Michaels liked a contender, Laviolette said, “He laughed quietly. And not a lot.”
For newcomers, there are definite advantages that come with being on a show as entrenched as “SNL”: “You get staffed as a writer or cast as a performer and you automatically get an agent and a manager and more work opportunities--managers and agents are lining up to sign you,” Laviolette said. But to some young talents, it resides off the radar.
I’ll be honest. I haven’t even paid attention [to the goings on at ‘SNL’],” comedian Leonard Ouzts told The Post. “‘SNL’ is not a huge factor in my life. I had a chance to get a couple auditions. Michael Che is a good friend and the conversation came up that he could [help get] me an audition. Through my agency, I could get an audition. ‘SNL’ wasn’t a thing for me. I am 29. When I grew up, the biggest thing was ‘Wild ‘N Out.'”
When it comes to those left on the show, the industry source said there are definite stars.
“[‘Weekend Update’ hosts] Colin Jost and Michael Che are good anchors for the show. Ego [Nwodim] is getting more time. Chloe [Fineman] is the rising star. Bowen could do so much more than they’re using him for--he’s so popular,” the source said of writer-turned-cast member Bowen Yang, who co-starred in the summer’s “Fire Island” movie. “Bowen and Chloe are natural stars.”
Michaels has also remained a guiding hand in many players’ careers outside of “SNL”--helping produce everything from Mike Myers’ “Wayne’s World” movies to Tina Fey’s “30 Rock,” Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers’ late-night NBC talk shows, Fred Armisen’s “Portlandia,” “That Damn Michael Che” on HBO and Thompson’s recent failed “Kenan” sitcom.
Italia pointed out that Michaels has evolved over time, becoming more willing to let performers take weeks off from “SNL” to work on other projects.
“Pete was working on a film for most of last season,” said Italia of Davidson. Later, “Lorne asked Pete what he wanted to do. He said he wanted to do a series loosely based on his life and now it’s filming.” The sitcom, “Bupkis,” is being produced by Michaels’ Broadway Video production company and will air on Peacock.
Sources agree that a post-Michaels “SNL” is difficult to picture.
It’s hard to imagine both the show without Lorne and Lorne without the show,” Shales said, speculating on the notion of a new leader. “It’s not like we’ll be getting a new pope--though, maybe in television terms, it is that.”
--Michael Kaplan and Sarah Nathan, New York Post
As Fed fights inflation, recession fears grow
"Investing lesson of the week," said The Wall
Street Journal in an editorial: "Never trust a politician." Word out of the
White House for weeks has been that "inflation is under control," and
the markets took Washington's word for it. But [a recent] Consumer Price Index
was a reality check: Inflation is still raging. Overall inflation seemed to
rise only a little, to 8.3 percent. But that's deceptive, because gasoline
prices dropped 10.6 percent; other prices went up across the board. Food costs
are now "the biggest pain point for consumers," with grocery prices
up 13.5 percent from a year ago. Core prices, which exclude food and energy,
"also keep rising." The 6.2 percent surge in shelter costs for the
year is the highest since 1983. It's no surprise that markets promptly suffered
one of the worst weeks of the year on the release of the report, which
confirmed that the Federal Reserve must continue its economic tightening.
With "markets reeling," the Fed has clearly gotten
the message on inflation, said Davide Barbuscia and David
Randall in Reuters. "Just months ago, investors worried the
Federal Reserve was not fighting inflation aggressively enough." Now they
are just as worried that the Fed will overshoot the mark and "plunge the
economy into recession." The central bank this week issued its third
consecutive three-quarter-point rate hike, and investors have also begun
"pricing in meatier rate hikes down the road." While most of the
economy still "appears to be humming along," delivery giant FedEx
warned of a global economic stumble, and there may not be time for the Fed to
gauge the full effects of its rate increases before they have gone too far.
The CPI numbers need to be put in perspective,
said John Cassidy in The New Yorker. "In June, the headline
inflation rate was 9.1 percent, so in two months it has declined by 0.8
percentage points." That's nothing to scoff at. The steady decline in fuel
prices also "augurs well for anyone who buys food," since one of the
factors influencing food costs is higher transportation costs. The slowdown
we've seen in the housing market is also encouraging, because "buying will
become a more attractive option, reducing demand for rentals."
Picking out a few positive signs and saying they mean
inflation will go away is wishful thinking, said Henry
Olsen in The Washington Post. "President Biden rightly touts
falling gas prices as an accomplishment," but "the money Americans
save when filling their tanks simply goes out the door to pay for the food on
their tables." There is no doubt that inflation will stick around as a
major election issue. The CPI report "pretty much dashed" the hopes
that the 2021–22 inflation surge would resolve harmlessly, said Paul
Krugman in The New York Times. "There will, alas, be pain."
The economy and labor market "are still running very hot," and we
won't get inflation down until those change. The Fed's rate hikes will cause
unemployment to rise, although economists differ on their predictions for how
high it needs to go. "The truth is that nobody knows for sure."
--The Week
Why do you like the music you like? Science weighs in
Have you wondered why you love a particular song or genre of
music? The answer may lie in your personality, although other factors also play
a role, researchers say.
Many people tend to form their musical identity in
adolescence, around the same time that they explore their social identity.
Preferences may change over time, but research shows that people tend to be
especially fond of music from their adolescent years and recall music from a
specific age period -- 10 to 30 years with a peak at 14 - more easily.
Musical taste is often identified by preferred genres, but a
more accurate way of understanding preferences is by musical attributes,
researchers say. One model outlines three dimensions of musical attributes:
arousal, valence and depth.
"Arousal is linked to the amount of energy and intensity
in the music," says David M. Greenberg, a researcher at Bar-Ilan
University and the University of Cambridge. Punk and heavy metal songs such as
"White Knuckles" by Five Finger Death Punch were high on arousal, a
study conducted by Greenberg and other researchers found.
"Valence is a spectrum," from negative to positive
emotions, he says. Lively rock and pop songs such as "Razzle Dazzle"
by Bill Haley & His Comets were high on valence.
Depth indicates "both a level of emotional and
intellectual complexity," Greenberg says. "We found that rapper
Pitbull's music would be low on depth, [and] classical and jazz music could be
high on depth."
Also, musical attributes have interesting relationships with
one another. "High depth is often correlated with lower valence, so
sadness in music is also evoking a depth in it," he says.
We prefer music from artists whose personalities we identify
with. "When people listen to music, they're being driven by how similar
that artist is to themselves," Greenberg says.
In his 2021 study, participants rated the personality traits
of artists using the Big 5 model: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion,
Agreeableness and Neuroticism (OCEAN). To the respondents, David Bowie
displayed high Openness and Neuroticism; while Marvin Gaye displayed high
Agreeableness.
"The match between the [personality of the] listener
and the artist was predictive of the musical preferences for the artist beyond
just the attributes from the music," Greenberg says.
Personality traits may predict people's musical taste,
researchers say. In a 2022 study, Greenberg and his colleagues found that
despite sociocultural differences, participants around the world displayed
personality traits that were consistently correlated with their preference for
certain genres of Western music. Extraversion, for example, was linked to a
preference for upbeat contemporary music, and Openness was linked to a
preference for sophisticated or cerebral styles.
Our cognitive styles and how we think may also predict what
types of music we may like. A 2015 study by Greenberg and his colleagues
distinguishes between systemizers and empathizers -- people who understand the
world through thoughts and emotions vs. people who are interested in rules and
systems. "Empathizers tend to prefer sadness in music whereas
[systemizers] prefer more intensity in music," Greenberg said. "A lot
of IT [and] data science professionals [are] high on systemizing and also
prefer really intense music."
Also, both empathizers and systemizers listen to music with
high depth, but empathizers prefer attributes that represent emotional depth,
and systemizers prefer attributes that represent intellectual depth and
technical complexity.
While personality may be one determinant of our musical
preferences, another could be the context. Minsu Park and his colleagues
identified temporal patterns in listening behavior - people tend to listen to
relaxing music in the evening and energetic music during the day. "This
fluctuation is almost identical regardless of your cultural location and other
demographic information," says Park, assistant professor of social
research and public policy at New York University Abu Dhabi.
There is, however, a baseline difference between people from
different cultures. In Latin America, people tend to listen to "more
arousing music compared to other people in other regions," and in Asia,
they tend to listen to "more relaxing music [than] people in other
regions," Park says.
Age and gender also are linked with certain kinds of music.
Younger people tend to like intense music and older people tend to dislike it,
Greenberg's research shows. Listeners of mellow music are more likely to be
women, and listeners of intense music are more likely to be men and from the
Western hemisphere.
There also are age trends in how people engage with music.
A 2013 study that examined data from two studies of more
than a quarter-million individuals showed that "Young people listen to
music significantly more often than do middle-aged adults, and young people
listen to music in a wide variety of contexts, whereas adults listen to music
primarily in private contexts."
Personality may influence our musical taste, but it's
important to note that changes in musical taste do not indicate a change in personality.
Even if we change what we listen to, we implicitly remain the same people.
"An introvert may change over time ... but ultimately
their core [and] basis will be introversion," Greenberg says.
--Nayantara Dutta, special to the Washington Post
Last 10 Quotes from David Foster-Wallace
1. “The integrity of my sleep has been forever compromised, sir.”
2. “I am not what you see and hear.”
3. “Mediocrity is contextual.”
4. “It’s weird to feel like you miss someone you’re not even sure you know.”
5. “I had kind of a midlife crisis at twenty, which probably doesn’t augur well for my longevity.”
6. “There’s good self-consciousness, and then there’s toxic, paralyzing, raped by-psychic-Bedouins self-consciousness.”
7. “What goes on inside is just too fast and huge and all interconnected for words to do more than barely sketch the outlines of at most one tiny little part of it at any given instant.”
8. “Both destiny’s kisses and its dope-slaps illustrate an individual person’s basic personal powerlessness over the really meaningful events in his life: i.e. almost nothing important that ever happens to you happens because you engineer it. Destiny has no beeper; destiny always leans trench-coated out of an alley with some sort of Psst that you usually can’t even hear because you’re in such a rush to or from something important you’ve tried to engineer.”
9. “The thing about people who are truly and malignantly crazy: their real genius is for making the people around them think they themselves are crazy. In military science, this is called Psy-Ops for your info.”
10. “I’ll say God seems to have a kind of laid-back management style I’m not crazy about. I’m pretty much anti-death. God looks by all accounts to be pro-death. I’m not seeing how we can get together on this issue, he and I.”
--Everyday Power
