Monday, October 27, 2008

A Little Of The Old In And Out



In: Saturday Night Live. SNL always comes alive a little bit during the Presidential election season, reminding us that it is still relevant (And: Amy Poehler is a babymomma!). This season, with the rise of online clips, the not-yet-ready-for-prime-time players have taken the blogosphere by storm. No wonder the sinking NBC expanded the weekend update format to Thursday. From AdAge:

"Vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's appearance was very good for 'Saturday Night Live,' bringing the show its best ratings in 14 years.
The clip of Amy Poehler's Palin rap sat at No. 2 on Hulu.com.

"But the number of people who have watched the clips on the web is closing fast, and will soon surpass the 15 million that watched on TV, if it hasn't already.

"... Two clips of the Alaska governor on 'SNL,' her fake press conference and appearance on 'Weekend Update,' have racked up 6.1 million views on NBC.com. Derivative versions such as those used in news coverage, as well as pirated versions of the clips, have been viewed another 2.85 million times on sites like YouTube, MySpace and Yahoo, according to web video measurement firm Visible Measures.

"Combined, the videos have been viewed 8.85 million times since Sunday ..

"... And with pre-roll advertising running on NBC.com and Hulu.com, it is also adding revenue. On NBC.com, a pre-roll for HSBC was shown before the "SNL" skit, while on Hulu ads for products such as Oil of Olay, Right Guard and Travelocity have been shown."




Why is this man smiling? (image via radaronline)

Out: The Networks. Even as SNL increases in relevance -- or, one could argue, the online popularity of clips from the show -- the networks themselves which house such shows are in remarkable decline. Networks are cutting sosts. The squeeze is being felt. Even Ben Silverman is awash in a sea of schadenfreude.



In: Elizabeth Moss. Don't we all just love Elizabeth Moss, a little bit after her astonishing performance at the end of last night's season finale of "Mad Men"? Moss, an accomplished character actor -- remember Zoe on "The West Wing"? -- is presently playing Karen in Mamet's Speed the Plow at the Belasco Theatre. Not to reveal any spoilers, Time's James Pozniewozik said of Moss'startling performance, "That may have been the single best scene the entire season, not simply for how well Moss handled the revelation .." That revelation will remain unrevealed (at least until later on in the week).

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

which is funny because, compared to The Daily Show writing, SNL SUCKS BOLLIX. Oh well...mediocrity rules, I suppose.

The Corsair said...

AND: Daily Show and Colbert do it 4 times a week as opposed to SNL which airs on Thursday (weekend edition) and Saturday. I don't know why SNL scores so many more viewers what Colbert and stewart even online, but don't cry for those guys, they are in teh same boat, with the same attractive demographic, getting premium sponsors and garnering massive speaking fees.