Is Saturday Night Live in a New Golden Age? 

NBC’s award-winning sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live is well into its 50th season, and it seems the show has truly rediscovered its place in pop culture and late-night television.

In 2022, I wrote an article for The Hilltopper that questioned the future of SNL. At the time, the show had hit a slump. The writing felt uninspired, the hosts were poorly chosen and a mass exodus of several cast members who had been carrying every sketch they were in (Kate McKinnon, Pete Davidson, Aidy Bryant) all seemed to spell the end of SNL. 

Then in 2023, things appeared to be looking up. Seasons 48 and 49 were still a little shaky, but many of those critical issues from the previous year had become less noticeable. The addition of some promising new cast members (and a few from the previous seasons who hit their strides, like Bowen Yang), experienced hosts and more creative sketches were all putting SNL back on the right track. 

Now, in 2025, I’m happy to say that I think SNL has continued this trend, and that so far its 50th season is one of the strongest in recent memory. In fact, I would go as far as to say that the show is potentially entering a new “golden age.” 

Most people agree that SNL has had a few distinct eras where the show peaked both in popularity and humor, with a general consensus that the ‘90s were the absolute golden age of SNL. However, people also tend to view the era that they grew up watching with rose-colored glasses. In reality, there has never truly been a time in SNL’s history where every single sketch was consistently hilarious, not even in the ‘90s. What sets apart certain periods as a “golden age” are a few main components, all of which are present in Season 50.

So what are these components? In my opinion, the most important is the cast. Not just who they are, but also their synergy. 

In an optimal SNL cast, each player should bring something unique to the table while also being able to hold their own in a sketch that isn’t tailored to their style of comedy. There are always a few stand-out cast members in every era of SNL (you can’t discuss the late ‘90s and early 2000s of the show without talking about Will Ferrell and Tina Fey, for example), but they shouldn’t be the only ones that can consistently make a sketch funny. This was the problem SNL was having not too long ago. 

The cast of season 50 is quite diverse in comedic style, experience and personality, and they have developed very strong chemistry and an understanding of each other’s niches. This allows even the newest cast members to hold their own alongside the veteran players. It also feels like many of the promising newer cast members have made an unofficial leap from rookie status to seasoned performer: Bowen Yang, Ego Nwodim, Marcello Hernandez and Chloe Fineman, all cast members introduced in the past six seasons, have really come into their own. They all showed a lot of potential from the beginning, but now that potential has been harnessed into pure skill. Their delivery is more confident, they know what will work and what won’t, and they seem way more comfortable acting on TV. 

Additionally, each cast member has become a character in and of themselves, which has made all of them even more likeable. Because of this, watching SNL isn’t just funny, it’s also fun. It feels like tuning in to the shenanigans of your silliest friends (in a less parasocial sounding way, of course). Mikey Day, for example, has carved out his role as the “straight man” -- the person who acts normal in a comedic scenario, thereby establishing a reference point for what is weird -- in the vast majority of sketches, and he executes it with a perfect mix of disbelief, shock and outrage that makes him highly relatable. Chloe Fineman’s knack for impressions means we as viewers are constantly engaged and pleasantly surprised by her versatility, while Heidi Gardner has an undeniable stage presence that makes it very easy for her castmates to play off of her scene-commanding energy.  

Even the newest cast members, who are still only featured players, have already become easily identifiable for their brands of humor, which often doesn’t happen in the first season they are introduced. Jane Wickline’s dry, more subtle delivery has brought a much-needed balance to a cast that, with so many larger-than-life characters (Bowen Yang, Kenan Thompson and Sarah Sherman, to name a few) could otherwise very easily be too over-the-top.  

I won’t go through the motions of mentioning every single cast member here, but I would be remiss if I didn’t give a nod to the Weekend Update anchors, who, no matter what, can always be counted on to bring the laughs. Colin Jost and Michael Che have perfected a rapport that can save even the roughest of episodes. Thankfully, there haven’t been any rough episodes so far this season, and that’s because of the other most important factor: inspired sketch writing. 

The writing on SNL has steadily improved in the past few seasons, and I think part of that is because they had no other choice. When most of the cast members who had been carrying the show left in 2022, the writers were forced to face just how lackluster their work had become: it was unoriginal, too reliant on cheap pop culture references, and seemingly desperate to stay relevant through shock and awe, which didn’t really pan out due to the limits of network television.

Well over a dozen new writers were hired in season 47 and 48, the last seasons before most of the longtime cast members departed. I believe this helped massively. Adding new voices to the table has revitalized the sketches: their concepts feel more creative, and the execution has improved markedly. 

One of the biggest critiques of SNL has always been that the sketches never have a good ending, and I’ve found myself noticing this less and less in the last two seasons, especially in season 50. The “Parking Lot Altercation” sketch in the Martin Short episode, for example, had a perfect climax (Melissa McCarthy made a surprise appearance with some very on-brand physical comedy), and the resolution was wonderfully brief (Mikey Day gives up the parking spot, without trying to add in a random new plot point or weak one-liner). Of course, not every sketch can have Melissa McCarthy to steal the scene, but I think this new generation of writers have realized that when it comes to the ending, less is often more. 

The last thing I’m really enjoying about season 50 is that I’m seeing the reappearance of some sketch formats from older eras of SNL. Episode 12, hosted by Timothée Chalamet, included a commercial parody for “Oedipal Arrangements” -- a fruit basket for sons with Oedipus complexes -- and an actual honest-to-God animated sketch (about God, no less). Commercials aren’t unheard of in modern SNL, but their frequency definitely peaked around the early to mid 2010s during the “digital shorts” era, so it’s exciting to witness their return. 

Animated sketches, on the other hand, are something I thought we’d never see on SNL again. I sincerely hope they are here to stay, since Robert Smigel’s TV Funhouse cartoons of two decades ago were legendarily funny. If SNL could bring that variety and energy back it would make every episode that much better. 

All this is not to say that the show is perfect. The writing is much more creative, but it has also begun to rely more on visual gags and less on clever joke-telling. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing -- the “Beavis and Butt-Head” sketch of the prior season was utterly hilarious, and racked up an impressive 21 million views on YouTube. Its entire premise rested on Ryan Gosling and Mikey Day wearing prosthetics and makeup to look uncannily like Beavis and Butt-Head. 

However, I do worry that this trend will go too far. Every once and a while a sketch like this is a smash hit, but do it too often and it loses its comedic value. The SNL audience can’t come to expect it; it has to take them by surprise. Do Beavis and Butt-Head in every episode, and it won’t feel nearly as special.

There is also the question of whether or not SNL will continue past its 50th season. Showrunner Lorne Michaels has discussed retiring after season 50 several times, and it’s been hinted at by cast member Kenan Thompson in interviews. It would certainly be a high note to end the show on. But I would be very surprised if the show did end now. It would be a bit of a slap in the face to the newest featured players. They haven’t had nearly enough time to establish themselves as performers both on and off the show, and I doubt they would have been hired if the show was planned to end at Season 50. Ratings have also been up, and SNL feels more culturally relevant than it has been in years. Even though I believe we’re in a new golden age, I don’t think season 50 is this golden age’s peak, and I can’t wait to see where SNL will go from here.