How SNL Spends Its Money
And other odds and ends.
Here’s something fun. Through a Freedom of Information request, I recently obtained SNL’s film tax credit applications for its 44th (2018-2019) and 45th (2019-2020) seasons. These contain budget documents and massive spreadsheets of everything the show spent its money on during those four years, from payroll to airfare to maintenance fees for Lorne Michaels’ office aquarium. Even though actual dollar amounts are generally redacted or omitted, these documents are still a fascinating peek under the hood. There are even a few places where actual dollar amounts aren’t omitted, offering brief glimpses of what the most powerful institution in American comedy pays its talent.
For instance, here's a field in the Season 44 final budget that appears to reveal Kenan Thompson's per-episode fee of $25,000 (which honestly strikes me as a bit low, though it's not necessarily reflective of his total compensation):
And here's another field listing Kate McKinnon's bonus structure: $50,000 if she got an Emmy nomination (she did), $150,000 if she won.
Elsewhere we find Michaels' assistants' salaries: $200,000 for his first assistant, $100,000 for his second, $850/week for his third and $800/week for his fourth. Their names are unredacted in the document, and obviously they're in the show's credits every Saturday, but since they're not exactly public figures I'm gonna redact them here:
