Saturday Night Live is one of the most iconic pieces of programming in TV history, and it’s currently in its 50th season. To celebrate that achievement, NBC and showrunners, including Lorne Michaels, planned, produced, and executed well – all live – the SNL 50th Anniversary Special, which aired a few weeks back on February 16, 2025.
Rather than firing up a classic TV antenna or opting for my Hulu live TV subscription, I decided to open up Peacock, using an Apple TV 4K – one of the best streaming devices – to ultimately watch the anniversary special. It’s not the first time I’ve turned to the NBC-owned streaming service to watch a live event, that honor goes to the Summer 2024 Paris Olympics, in which I also used the multiview functionality to watch multiple competitions at once.
This time around, I was greeted with an SNL 50 overlay and could jump right into the live broadcast of the show with a single click. For those wondering, I hopped in about midway through the opening with Paul Simon and Sabrina Carpenter on one of the best streaming services.
The stream began without a hitch and looked pretty sharp if I do say so myself. I also didn’t encounter stutters or a stoppage in the stream, and I didn’t even see commercials either – rather, I was presented with a text along the lines of “the SNL 50th Anniversary would resume soon” with the theme song playing on a loop and various glam shoots of the acclaimed 8H studio where the show tapes.
It was a nice experience for a live-stream event, an easy way to watch the 50th special without the need for a linear TV experience, and it went off pretty much without a hitch. Something that the linear broadcast for some didn’t as the special ran over. Even so, 14.8 million viewers across Peacock and NBC (linear TV) watched the special either live or within the same day. That makes it NBC’s most primetime event in the last five years, besting the Golden Globes.
Peacock has a sort of special sauce in the streaming service sector – yes, it’s a new offering since its premiere in 2020, but it’s backed by NBC, which has been in the business of live TV and events rolling in real time for years. The streaming service also knows how to curate its backlog of content with other elements and live events. We saw back with the Paris Olympics the ability to watch each individual category, a few of them together in multiview, and a trove of new content, including Snoop Dog at the games and a show hosted by Alex Cooper.
The SNL 50 takeover was a similar feat, which had a goal of letting fans reach the content they wanted – be it all the episodes from the 50th season or previous ones, specially-released documentaries, or even the SNL 50 Homecoming Concert, which also streamed live on Peacock. We’ll also see a similar takeover come March 21, 2025, when Wicked hits Peacock and begins streaming for all subscribers of the service.
Building a platform that supports the highest levels of performance
Speaking to TechRadar, Patrick Miceli, CTO of global streaming and the NBCU Media Group, said that since Peacock’s inception, “we’ve invested in building a platform and technical infrastructure that supports the highest levels of performance, security, and reliability to deliver a seamless and incomparable experience for our customers.”
Miceli further noted that even with the complexities of live-streaming, Peacock has “achieved a 100% success rate in video quality and reliability on our NFL and Olympics coverage last year”. This comes as other services, including Netflix with the Logan Paul vs Mike Tyson fight, have struggled to keep streams afloat with heavy audience demand.
Suffice to say, Peacock and NBC at large felt confident going into the weekend with the Olympics, NFL games, and other events, including the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in the history books. Still, Miceli shared, “we do still spend a lot of time preparing for each event, accounting for a variety of different scenarios to ensure we’re ready for anything”.
I was impressed with Peacock’s performance, and countless others shared that the stream was a top performer on social media using the hashtag #SNL50. Given the performance here, I’m keen to see what kind of package Peacock curates for future specials, live events like the next Olympics, and NBA games, which will hit the streaming service in 2025.
Of course, even though it’s not live, I’ll still head to Peacock whenever I need my Bravo fix like Summer House, reruns of Vanderpump Rules, or a rewatch of a timeless classic with SNL alums Amy Poehler (Parks and Recreation).
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jacob.krol@futurenet.com (Jacob Krol)
