Saturday Night (Truly) Live

After a successful experiment late last season, airing Saturday Night Live truly live in all U.S. time zones for the first time ever, NBC has announced that the adjusted time slots are here to stay.

Starting with the season 43 opener on September 30 -- with host Ryan Gosling and musical guest Jay-Z -- each episode will air as always on the East Coast (live at 11:30 PM), and simultaneously in each of the other time zones -- meaning at 10:30 PM Central, 9:30 PM Mountain and 8:30 PM Pacific.  Then, to fill up the remainder of the Mountain and Pacific markets' Saturday nights, SNL will be repeated at 11:30.

For us on the West Coast, it means the chance to see the live version, warts and all.  So if something slips getting bleeped, now we'll all get to see, rather than just the lucky folks back East!

Below, the NBC press release from earlier today:

‘SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE’ IS STAYING LIVE FROM COAST TO COAST

NEW YORK — Sept. 19, 2017 — NBC’s Emmy Award-winning “Saturday Night Live” will once again air live simultaneously around the country beginning with the highly anticipated season 43 premiere on Sept. 30 with host Ryan Gosling and musical guest Jay-Z.

Each episode will air live at:

11:30 p.m. Eastern

10:30 p.m. Central

9:30 p.m. Mountain

8:30 p.m. Pacific

For the Mountain and Pacific time zones, “SNL” will be repeated at 11:30 p.m.

The live coast-to-coast airings that began in April grew 11% in “live plus same day” viewership versus what “SNL” was averaging earlier in the season (8.3 million vs. 7.5 million, according to Nielsen Media Research), indicating strong interest in the formerly tape-delayed markets to see the show live.

“Saturday Night Live” is produced in association with Broadway Video. The creator and executive producer is Lorne Michaels.