Saturday Night Live has been such a staple of our weekly routines for the better part of the past 50 years. Heck, Kenan Thompson has been a staple of the show for an enormous chunk of that run! And as the variety program celebrates its fifth decade of entertaining the masses, we are hearing fascinating stories from cast members both new and old about their time spent working on SNL, and some of the myths and rumors that come with the gig.
New York Magazine has been doing a fun Instagram reel where they interview Saturday Night Live cast members about burning questions, from the most famous guests as SNL after parties, to the current one about the biggest splurges people made after their first paycheck arrived. Even though Pete Davidson has gone on to buy the Staten Island Ferry with SNL co-star Colin Joest, he makes it seem like he didn’t earn all that much when he started working on SNL. Listen to Pete Davidson lay it out in the below reel:
Pete Davidson claims that Saturday Night Live pays their people something close to $3,000 an episode. Please bear in mind, there are multiple levels of employment, and pay, at Saturday Night Live. As you might imagine, the specifics about what a performer earns as SNL are hard to come by. The Website CelebrityNetWorth reports that first-year cast members earn $7,000 an episode, or $147,000 a year after all 21 episodes in the season play out. Second year “players” can go up to $8,000, and it reportedly goes up from there.
At the same time, we know that over the years, some famous Saturday Night Live cast members such as Adam Sandler started out as writers, and had to earn their way up to being in skits, and appearing on camera. There's a big difference between featured players and full-time cast members too. Also, I guarantee that certain cast members earn (or demand) more money as they become more famous.
I won’t disrespect anyone by trying to name names here. But I think we all can correctly assume that Pete Davidson earned more money from SNL the longer that he stayed on the show. Because in his earliest days, hardly anyone knew who he was, and he’ll admit that he had a hard time figuring out where he fit on the show. By the end, however, he was setting records for the most viewings of a pre-taped skit, proposing to Ariana Grande, and basically outgrowing the show that launched him to stardom.
But as he states in the New York Magazine interview, he thinks he basically bought dinner with his first paycheck. Classic.
I get a kick out of the other answers there, with Ted Lasso superstar Jason Sudeikis admitting that Manhattan rent prevented him from doing much of anything, and a surprising number of SNL cast members saying that they used the paycheck to purchase a couch. Remember when SNL comedians were addicted to cocaine? Now, it’s Pottery Barn. What would you buy with your first SNL paycheck? I hope it’s something wild, and something you absolutely did not need.
