Last week (and through this weekend), the TV buzz wasn’t about Netflix, Disney+, TBS, or ABC-TV.
It was about the decision of Lorne Michaels, executive producer, showrunner, and guiding light of the longest running entertainment show on network television – Saturday Night Live – to have Elon Musk host the show.
Michaels has held the job since Day One. And when we think of programmers and coaches who have great runs with a show or a team – Shonda Rimes, Bill Belichick, Gregg Popovich – none can hold a candle to Michaels.
SNL is now smack in the middle of its 46th season – and it’s still generating buzz. Michaels’ secret? I’ve quoted him in this blog before:
“If you’re not about what people are thinking about that week, then I think you don’t have any relevance.”
For any talk or personality show, those words should be etched in stone. Whether it’s what people are jabbering about in Hollywood, D.C., Broadway, or Omaha, turning the mirror back at your audience is smart programming. It’s how you capture the zeitgeist of the moment.
But as Michaels has learned over the years, sometimes you cannot just reflect on who or what is in the news. You have to make the news – or as I’m fond of saying, break a little china. (People tune in to see what made all those dishes crash.)
And he’s got a pretty good track record. Back in 1976, he took to the SNL set to make this bombastic announcement:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0C6Wuw_YOM
A certified check for $3,000 – certainly a tongue-in-cheek offer. But it was a serious gesture as well. The Beatles had just broken up a few short years earlier, and they were being missed by rockers everywhere.
But that’s the nature of SNL. The author of Live From New York, the Complete, Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live, James Andrew Miller, observed the show isn’t so much an entertainment show, but a cultural one. And that’s a big reason SNL is still (to use Michaels’ word) relevant in 2021.
But after four years of TrumpWorld where bits wrote themselves, Michaels realizes that in order for SNL to remain a cultural icon, it must work harder, smarter, and take more risks. It was simple when Alec Baldwin donned the Trump wig, and read quotes nearly verbatims from the annals of @realdonaldtrump.
And to no one’s surprise, Joe Biden is not funny. They still parody him on the show, but you won’t be talking about the bit during your Monday morning Zoom meeting.
Booking another episode of SNL headlined by Kevin Hart or featuring the music of Coldplay isn’t going to move the needle this year either.
Hence, Musk.
It should come as no surprise that when you’re heading up a show that’s nearly eligible to join AARP, keeping it fresh is more than a challenge – it’s an imperative. Ask Bill Weston, Keith Dakin, Keith Cunningham, or Scott Jameson. They’re piloting radio starships a half century old, staying true to the rich tradition while keeping their brands vital and relevant.
On Saturday night, to no one’s surprise, Musk was a little awkward – at times, even cringeworthy. He may be the most innovative billionaire of them all, but he’s no Steve Martin.
Monologue! 💫 @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/xeH1EOU79A
— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) May 9, 2021
But that is precisely the point. It won’t matter how good (or bad) the ratings were – or how many people end up watching Musk’s show in the +3 and +7 formats – three and five days later on-demand.
It is about word-of-mouth. For the first time ever, Musk’s appearance on SNL was streamed live via YouTube to more than 100 countries, according to Axios, including Canada, the UK, Brazil, India, Russia, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.
That likely would not have happened had this week’s host been Jimmy Fallon, David Spade, or Robert Downey, Jr.
And that’s why your morning show mindset should be to channel some of Lorne Michaels’ flair for the surprise factor even the abnormal. The moment fans, network bosses, and even cast members start rolling their eyes or take to social media to express their shock, the show is likely going to be much-talked about.
Who’s that guest that will cause mass eyebrow raising – or eye rolling?
Who’s is the best known but least likely person to join your show in the studio (or all the more likely, your Zoom room)? Who is that bizarre guest who will immediately get everyone buzzing – because the idea is so good? Or so bad.
That’s who you want to book.
Because that’s who will shake up your routine, generate a social media reaction, and get people talking about your show.
And we could use some of that – and so could your show. Think about staff meetings pre-COVID. Everyone would pile into the conference room, nod hello, and stare at their phones until things got started. Now, it’s even more awkward. While we’re waiting for everyone to log in and get their cameras and mics going, the conversation can be stilted and contrived – the weather, a local sports team, how was your Mother’s Day.
I’d much rather talk about who you had on your show this morning, assuming it wasn’t the same benchmarks you do day in and day out.
And that’s the thing. Last Saturday night, all the standard SNL bits were intact. The monologue, the musical guest (Miley Cyrus, no less), and of course, “Weekend Update.”
But it was all about the Musk booking – how you feel about him, bitcoin, electric cars, and space travel. And what Lorne Michaels could possibly have been thinking when he announced his host in the first place.
In a post-Trump (maybe post-COVID) world where we’re no longer tethered to Twitter feeds, cable news scrolls, and blathering talk radio, personality shows and the radio stations that carry them are going to have to work harder, smarter, and take more risks in order to get on anyone’s radar screen.
You can’t book Elon Musk every week. SNL will ostensibly return to “normal” next week, but last weekend’s trick play is a reminder Michaels can pull something bizarre out of the playbook that keeps us guessing, and continuing to watch a show that’s been around longer than the Internet, smartphones, and TikTok.
What’s the guest booking or surreal bit you could get on your show next week (or next month) that would create your “Musk moment?” Chances are, you won’t bump into it until you make it a goal of the show to pull something like this off once a quarter – or even once or twice a year.
I don’t want to rush you, but it’s clear that in just months or even weeks, most of us will be itching to get back to our lives. Soon, we’ll be way too busy buying football and theater tickets, as well as booking dinner reservations, cruises, and theme park trips. We’ll be way too busy to talk about your show.
Unless, of course, you give us a reason to.
Postscript I: The ratings are out and the Musk hosted SNL was the highest rated for 2021 (so far), except for the shows hosted by Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle. According to Deadline, the show is the #1 TV comedy among 18-49 year-olds this season for the first time in its history.
Postscript II: According to Far Out Magazine, Paul McCartney and John Lennon may have been watching Lorne Michaels make the offer to reunite the Beatles. They were at Lennon’s apartment at the Dakota – a 10 minute taxi ride to Rockefeller Center. According to stories they both told years later, they actually considered jumping in a cab, but were tired, and decided instead to call it a night. Other versions of the story have Lennon telling McCartney about the show a week later. Coulda shoulda woulda.
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Or just fire the morning show. That seems to be the popular thing to do these days.
I was trying to avoid that by hopefully making morning shows better.
Good one, Fred.
And I’m glad your postscript included the Lennon-McCartney bit.
Yes.
They WERE watching the SNL episode. But it’s not just that they were “tired.” They were also happily enjoying some weed.
Now THAT would’ve been EPIC to see what could’ve happened if they made it to the SNL studio!
(So they say, I’m a dreamer)
JC, I like your version of this story better than mine!
SNL is so lame these days, including the Trumpkin era, that I don’t bother anymore.
Musk however became appointment teevee for me as soon as I heard of it two weeks before.
It was worth it– your point is taken.
Frank, appreciate the comment. For a lame show, they became relevant (at least this week).
When I first heard about Mr. Musk being tapped to host SNL, one name jumped out at me: Ron Nessen. He hosted on April 17th, 1976, while he was still Ford’s press secretary–with the president himself apparently delivering the open’s tagline, albeit prerecorded. (That said, Mr. Nessen worked for NBC News before joining the administration.)
SNL has always thrown those occasional curve balls, which is part of the reason why the show still works.
I’m reminded of something I saw during a Weekend Update segment during an SNL prime time special several years ago. (I believe it may have been a special anniversary show.) The anchor says something about the huge ratings that evening’s live show was enjoying when they suddenly plummeted because the show “wasn’t funny anymore,” only to come back up again. It was hysterical! And it captured what SNL has always done SO well–talk about any and everything–including itself–the same way the REST of us do. It “gets” us. Even when making fun of itself, it gets us.
That self-deprecation vibe has been there from the beginning. Interestingly, Musk went for it, but I’m not sure he quite pulled it off.