The fact that Saturday Night Live is, well, live means everyone needs to be ready for everything, and that includes having their sketches cut for time. Specifically, as the show is pushing up against the end of its timeslot, full sketches can be pulled. Sarah Sherman described what it’s like to learn this in the middle of an episode, and let me tell you, it sounds brutal.
After Season 51 of SNL wrapped up on the 2026 TV schedule, Sarah Sherman appeared on The Rundown to chat about the last sketch of an episode. She spoke about the challenges of this slot and the reality of facing the end of the show. In some cases, full sketches have to be cut while the episode is in progress because they’ve run out of time. Explaining what that feels like, the comedian who has been on the show for five seasons said:
Many times I’ve been in this slot, I’ve been waiting for my sketch to happen. And I have the wig on, I have the costume on, I’m waiting to see if it’s still on the show, I’m waiting to see if it got cut. All of a sudden, I just feel my hairdresser’s hands come onto my head to peel the wig right off. That’s how I know it’s been cut.
Well, that’s just brutal. For starters, I’d imagine being the final sketch of the night is nerve-wracking because you have to wait through so many other sketches before yours goes live. Add the fact that it could get cut for time, and I’d be anxiety-ridden. Then, to find out it’s cut as you’re getting ready for it? Talk about stressful!
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That’s the nature of the beast, though. When we watch an episode of SNL on NBC or with a Peacock subscription, it’s live, and that means anything can happen. And sadly, “anything” includes sketches getting cut.
It also includes sketches having to be shortened or edited as they’re being performed. In fact, Sherman explained that during “Lisa From Temecula,” which was the last sketch of Pedro Pascal’s episode in Season 48, the writer was literally pulling cue cards as they were performing to make the sketch shorter and fit within Saturday Night Live’s timeslot.
Overall, this story from Sherman about learning her sketch was being cut further shows how hard it is to work on this series and how resilient its performers are. It can’t be easy to be slotted here, wonder if your work will make it onto the air, and then have it cut. However, these performers have to keep going, because they have another episode to prepare for.
To that point, Michael Che has joked about leaving SNL every season, and he got real about how draining a given season can be. This cast and crew ride a lot of very high highs and lows, and dealing with all that has to be challenging.
However, while they have to deal with sketches being cut during an episode and they have to be ready to create new content every single week, whether they’re ready or not, they also get to create iconic characters and moments that live in pop culture for a very long time.
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