‘SNL’ Stars Reassure Lorne Michaels ‘It Gets Better’ After 85 Emmy Losses in 50th-Anniversary Tribute

As Saturday Night Live prepares to return for its 50th season later this month, decades-spanning SNL stars Bowen Yang, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, and Seth Meyers took the Emmys stage to pay tribute to the man who started it all.

'The Traitors' Just Won Another Emmy, Cementing It as the Best Reality Series of the Year

Standing on a mock set-up of the infamous 30 Rock stage, presenting the Emmy for the Writing for Variety Special, the Saturday Night Live stars stopped their presentation to draw attention to creator Lorne Michaels’ 85 Emmy nominations and losses. Wiig emphasized that, despite his losses, Michaels has “never been a loser, even though you have lost a lot.” Rudolph butted in, adding that Michaels had been “robbed, rob-a-dub-dubbed” over the years.

Yang, who mispronounced Michaels’ first name as “Lauren,” assured him “it gets better.”

“Just because SNL didn’t work doesn’t mean your next idea won’t,” Yang said. “Keep dreaming.”

Saturday Night Live has a long history with the Emmys. The show has received more than 300 nominations since 1977, when it scored its first nominations for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Variety or Music Series and Outstanding Continuing or Single Performance by a Supporting Actor in Variety or Music nomination for Chevy Chase. Of those nods, SNL has been awarded 103 Emmy awards, the most of any television series.

Eugene and Dan Levy Bring Charming Jokes and Canadian Manners to 2024 Emmys Monologue

Tonight, Saturday Night Live was up for Outstanding Scripted Variety Series and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for Yang. At the 76th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, which were presented on Sept. 7 and 8, SNL was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for Ryan Gosling, Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for alumni Rudolph and Wiig, Outstanding Production Design for a Variety or Reality Series, Outstanding Directing for a Variety Series, and more.

Saturday Night Live will kick off its 50th season on Sept. 28, and a three-hour special celebrating five decades of SNL is scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 16. The show will also be featured on the big screen with Saturday Night , Jason Reitman’s forthcoming film about the first-ever SNL broadcast. The film will hit theaters on Oct. 11, 49 years to the date of when Saturday Night Live premiered in 1975.

According to a synopsis, the film is “based on the true story of what happened behind the scenes in the 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live. Full of humor, chaos and the magic of a revolution that almost wasn’t, we count down the minutes in real time to the famous words: ‘Live from New York, it’s Saturday night!’”

In a review of Saturday Night, which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival, Rolling Stone wrote: “ Saturday Night Live has long swooned over its own self-mythology, and Saturday Night is happy to add to that back-patting as the show’s golden anniversary approaches. Chaos and narcotics, raw talent and perseverance, [Lorne] Michaels’ stamina and the surprising luck of it all somehow led to the cameras capturing sheer anarchy loosed upon the world at 11:30 p.m.”

Emmy Awards 2024: See the Complete Winners List