A new report reveals that Saturday Night Live was able to get around New York's ban on live TV audiences by paying some of them as cast members. The long-running comedy sketch show, which debuted in 1975, had its first episode of the season 46 on Saturday night, featuring host Chris Rock, musical performer Megan Thee Stallion and special appearances by Alec Baldwin as President Donald Trump, Jim Carrey as Vice-President Joe Biden and former SNL cast member Maya Rudolph as Senator Kamala Harris.
The debut show was a ratings hit, drawing in more viewers than SNL has had in four years, largely thanks to the much-anticipated debut of Carrey's impression of Biden. The show was also notable for featuring a live audience, some of whom were first responders, as revealed by Rock during his opening monologue. Season 45 had ended with no live audience, and sketches filmed by the stars from their homes and virtual studios. This season managed to get an audience even though New York state mandates have banned live TV studio audiences. But a new report reveals how this mandate was avoided.
A New York Times report reveals that certain audience members were paid $150 to appear, making them employees and not unpaid audience members. In this way, SNL could have an in-studio audience without falling foul of the state's health mandate. The report mentions that audience members applied online and were required to take a symptom quiz and a rapid result nasal antigen test on-site before being approved to enter the studio. Additionally, they had to wear masks at all times and would not be allowed in if a temperature test recorded a temperature higher than 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit. An audience member named Sean Ludwig revealed to the Times that he and his friends who attended didn't know they were going to be paid:
We had no idea we would be paid before we were handed checks. We were all very pleasantly surprised.
It's a stunning revelation for a show that has been so popular in the past that the free tickets usually given out in a lottery at the beginning of a season were considered one of the most valuable items in entertainment. But, as movie theater chains are finding out, things have changed irrevocably due to the coronavirus. So SNL had to resort to some innovative (if slightly shady) measures to retain its live audience.
It's unclear if the same will happen for next week's episode, considering the online listing for audience tickets has been removed. But, if SNL wants to ensure it has a live audience for performers to play off of, it will need to get punters in somehow. So long as the state doesn't see a problem with it, and audience members know what they're getting into by being confined in a studio together, giving the audience members a paycheck may be the best way to ensure the seats are filled.
Source: NYT