Thoughts whether SNL should call it quits at 50?

There's nothing like SNL. It's an institution.....as well as a late Saturday tradition. It was there when you were a kid, and you weren't allowed to watch it (so you sneak watched it). It was there during your high school years. It was there in the background during college parties. And it's there when you get home from the bar and need to wind down.

Once it's gone, there will never be anything like it again, especially in terms of the history and the legends that have graced that little late night, NY City theater. It just needs an influx of energy, while also respecting many of the elements Lorne has in place that work so well (like Weekend Update).

Tina Fey would be a brilliant showrunner when Lorne is ready to pass the baton.
I would hate to see SNL go away. The live, "hit and miss" nature of it is simply the nature of live, sketch comedy.
That's part of what makes it special.

You're probably right, there has to be huge production costs for just a weekly show. Other late night shows air 5 nights a week which allows them to get more airtime, more sponsors = more ways to make money.

The few things I know about SNL's profitability are 1. The first 5 years(75-80) had by far the highest ratings in the history of the show. NBC had BOTH Johnny Carson and SNL and had an absolute monopoly on late night. After Lorne left in 1980 the ratings have NEVER fully recovered. 2. Former SNL music director G.E. Smith commented that SNL started to become more profitable once Lorne came back and turned the show around(late 80's/early 90's. He said that once NBC got a new owner the new corporate heads started bean counting and made a lot of changes around 1995. Since G.E. Smith was making a really good salary he said they fixed that by simply firing him. 3. Occasionally over the last 50 years NBC has shown old or new SNL reruns in prime time. This obviously was due to a weak prime-time lineup and showing SNL reruns is basically free.

Maybe not a bad idea now, back 15 years ago SNL was really very good, it only completely collapsed around 2014. Historically, SNL has seen a big dropoff in viewership after Weekend Update so yes your point(s) do have some validity. I know recently Keenan Thompson said it might not be a bad idea to end SNL after Lorne retires because there's a good chance(actually, almost a certainty) that NBC would severely cut the budget of the show. So, Lorne retires as SNL 50, Tina Fey or someone else familiar with the show takes over, the budget cut to accommodate a one hour SNL. It would be cool if NBC then filled in the missing half hour with a new comedy show that takes chances again.

Right. It wasn’t that long ago that SNL gave us stuff like the Lonely Island skits with Andy Samberg. “Captain Jack Sparrow”, “D—k in a Box”, “I’m on a Boat”, etc.

Those bits rank right up there with the very best from the past. And let’s face it, they are WAY better than stuff like Bass-O-Mattic, Baba Wawa, The Church Lady, Pat, etc.

As you say, the show has always been unpredictably hit and miss….and that has always been part of its charm.

If SNL goes away, so does (yet another) chunk of our youth.

Right.
If 60 Minutes can go on in perpetuity, why can’t SNL?

SNL should always be there.
Losing the Charlie Brown Christmas Special was traumatic enough.