As we approach a new season of Saturday Night Live, the cast is taking focus, as it often does among fans. The media, especially social media, is chattering about which cast members are staying, and which SNL cast members are leaving.
There are also always new cast members to welcome to Studio 8H.
This time of the entertainment year begs the question: what type of contracts are SNL performers working under?
Explaining SNL contracts
Landing a spot on the cast of Saturday Night Live is the pinnacle for many performers, but the contract they sign is a unique document. It’s an agreement that offers a massive platform while granting the show and its network immense control over a performer’s career for nearly a decade.
At its core, the standard SNL contract is a seven-year deal. This lengthy term provides the show with stability and the ability to develop talent over multiple seasons. However, this commitment is largely one-sided. The show and NBCUniversal reserve the right to terminate a performer’s contract at any time, typically during the summer hiatus between seasons. In these cases, the performer receives a buyout, but their tenure is over. This is what famously happened in 1995 when future superstars Chris Farley and Adam Sandler were unexpectedly “fired” before their contracts concluded.
Conversely, if a performer wants to leave early to pursue other opportunities, the contract contains a clause that makes it financially prohibitive. Breaking the deal would require them to forfeit most, or all, of the money owed on the remaining years. This is why most cast members, even after achieving fame, complete their full term. While early breakouts in the show’s first era like Chevy Chase, John Belushi, and Dan Aykroyd did depart before their time was up, the modern contract structure makes such moves far more difficult.
Once a performer completes their initial seven-year commitment, the dynamic shifts. If they wish to stay, and the show wishes to keep them, they move to a series of one-year contracts. These deals are renegotiated annually and require mutual consent to renew. This was the model for the show’s longest-tenured members, including Darrell Hammond and the record-holding Kenan Thompson, who both operated on single-season agreements for the latter parts of their historic runs.
Furthermore, the initial seven-year contract often includes clauses that tie the performer to NBC for other projects. This allows the network to place rising stars in its sitcoms or feature films, leveraging the fame generated by SNL across its own properties.
For example, recent contracts have stipulated that cast members can be required to appear in movies developed by a production company owned by NBC. Also, cast members may be required to work in TV shows on NBC during their contracted tenure.
Historically, Saturday Night Live cast members were contracted for five to six years. However, a significant change occurred in the 1999–2000 season. New contracts were introduced that allowed NBC to place a performer, after their second year on the show, into an NBC sitcom. The talent had the right to refuse the first two sitcom offers but was obligated to accept the third. This sitcom deal, controlled by NBC, could last up to six years. Such deals are likely much different now.
This new structure sparked criticism from agents and managers, who pointed out that a performer could be locked into a contract with NBC for as long as twelve years. The contract also gave SNL Films, a joint venture of NBC, Paramount Pictures, and Lorne Michaels, options for three feature films with the cast member. These changes were reportedly a response to stars like Mike Myers and Adam Sandler, who achieved fame on SNL before leaving to generate massive profits for competing studios.
A crucial component of these agreements is a network option, which permits NBC to dismiss a cast member at its discretion.
Pay has evolved dramatically. The original SNL cast in 1975 earned $750 per episode, which grew to $4,000 by the fourth season (1978-79). In the late 1990s, new hires started between $5,000 and $5,500 per episode, with salaries rising to $12,500 by their fifth year, plus a $1,500 bonus for writing a sketch that aired.
In 2001, Will Ferrell became the highest-paid cast member at the time, and possibly ever, earning $350,000 per season. Reportedly, Pete Davidson claimed his starting salary in 2014 was around $3,000 per episode.
The singular exception to these rigid rules was Eddie Murphy. After becoming a global movie star while still on the show, he was the only cast member to successfully negotiate a deal that allowed him to appear in a limited number of episodes, often in pre-taped segments, freeing him up for his burgeoning film career. It was a testament to his unprecedented stardom, a level of leverage no cast member before or since has been able to command.
