Throughout Saturday Night Live’s lengthy career, fans have learned a lot of staggering facts about the show’s history. For example, Billy Joel witnessed a backstage fight, the after-parties are infamous, and there have been hosts who hated working on the show. If all that wasn’t incredible enough, there is a fascinating story about how close Lorne Michaels came to reuniting The Beatles on the show.
One of the most interesting parts of SNL has also been how the show’s cast gets treated. There have been stories about the hosts’ poor pay, the show’s stars having their careers threatened, and NBC trying to get the cast to sign horrible contracts. Another amazing fact about SNL that most fans don’t realize is that Kenan Thompson was once dismissive about how little new cast members get paid.
Kenan Thompson Defended How Little New Saturday Night Live Cast Members Get Paid
From the outside, looking in, it often seems like anyone who becomes famous is rich. However, the reality is that can be far from the truth at times. Instead, there are actually some celebrities who have never been rich.
As it turns out, some famous Saturday Night Live stars are not only not rich, they are likely pretty broke. Based on what has been learned about how little new Saturday Night Live cast members get paid, it seems very likely they have very little money.
If anyone expected Kenan Thompson to have sympathy for new Saturday Night Live cast members’ paltry salaries, he doesn’t seem to have any for them. Instead, Kenan once said that new Saturday Night Live stars have to suck it up and deal with their small pay.
In December 2024, Kenan spoke to Variety about how he felt about new Saturday Night Live stars’ salaries.
Longest Running SNL Cast Members, According to Yard Barker | |
|---|---|
Longest Running Saturday Night Live Cast Members | Seasons |
Michael Che | 9 |
Kyle Mooney | 9 |
Bobby Moynihan | 9 |
Kevin Nealon | 9 |
Maya Rudolph | 9 |
Jason Sudeikis | 9 |
Aidy Bryant | 10 |
Colin Jost | 10 |
Tim Meadows | 10 |
Fred Armisen | 11 |
Hal Franken | 11 |
Kate McKinnon | 11 |
Cecily Strong | 11 |
Seth Meyers | 13 |
Darrell Hammond | 14 |
Kenan Thompson | 22 |
As that article revealed, Kenan told new Saturday Night Live cast members that they needed to pay their dues.
You gotta pay your dues a little bit, yeah.
Kenan went on to explain why he thought it was fine for new Saturday Night Live cast members to be paid very little comparatively.
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Throughout Saturday Night Live’s 50-year history, the show has launched the careers of many movie stars. Not only that, several former SNL stars have gone on to headline successful shows, including talk show hosts like Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon.
In September 2024, People published an article about Kenan Thompson losing his fortune as a young man. When interviewed for the documentary Child Star, Kenan revealed he was scammed. “My mom met this dude somewhere through the community — either like church or neighborhood s***, through a book club or something, who claimed to be a good kind of tax accountant, will get you out of your tax problems for the cheap. He was basically a con artist and like ran away with my entire, my biggest earnings up until that point.”
While speaking to Variety, Kenan explained his belief that starring in Saturday Night Live is more about the opportunity and less about money.
It’s pretty notorious that it’s more so about having the job than getting paid for the job.
Kenan’s comments about Saturday Night Live stars not getting paid much was in response to a statement Pete Davidson had made at that time. As a separate Variety article reveals, Pete Davidson told New York Magazine about how little he was paid during his first season of Saturday Night Live.
Saturday Night Live’s Most Successful Stars, According to Screen Rant
- Bill Hader
- Julia Louis-Dreyfus
- Dan Aykroyd
- Mike Meyers
- Chris Rock
- Will Ferrell
- Bill Murray
- Robert Downey Jr.
- Eddie Murphy
- Adam Sandler
When asked by New York Magazine what his “biggest indulgence” was after his first SNL paycheck, Pete bluntly clarified he didn’t make enough to go crazy.
Do you guys know what they pay us? It’s like three grand an episode. I think I got dinner.
It is important to put Pete’s comments about his original Saturday Night Live salary in context.
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Saturday Night Live cast members have revealed how little the legendary show’s cast gets paid.
For the vast majority of people, being paid $3,000 for a week’s work would be an extravagant sum. With that in mind, it would make a lot of sense if a lot of people felt no sympathy for new Saturday Night Live stars getting paid $3,000. However, there is something else that needs to be considered.
In order to be a Saturday Night Live cast member, the show’s stars have to live in New York City. After all, during the Saturday Night Live seasons, the show’s cast has to be there daily to rehearse, pitch sketches, and more.
In June 2023, CNBC published a report about how expensive it is to live in New York City. That article stated that renting a one-bedroom apartment in New York City costs an average of $3,700. On top of that, the article states that groceries are 70% more expensive in New York City than in London, England.
With those figures in mind and all the other living expenses there would be, there is no doubt that SNL’s new stars aren’t as rich as many fans may assume.
After Kenan Thompson commented on new Saturday Night Live stars getting paid $3,000, a fan posted on Reddit about his response. On the r/LivefromNewYork subreddit, a fan posted a link to an article about Kenan’s comments and some of the show’s viewers responded.
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The second most-upvoted response to the subreddit post argued that everyone should make a living wage. The fan then argued that NBC needs to pay SNL’s cast better.
“Every job should pay enough to live in the place where you have to do it. These companies make a lot of money. There is no excuse.”
Another fan brought up the fact that Saturday Night Live stars have the potential to add to their income by taking other jobs.
Cast of SNL have greater probability to get side gigs/sponsorships that the other workers in the 70-100k income range don’t get.
Ultimately, the majority of fans who responded to the subreddit post argued that the show’s cast deserves to be paid better.
Saturday Night Live
- Release Date
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October 11, 1975
- Network
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NBC
- Showrunner
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Lorne Michaels
- Directors
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Dave Wilson, Don Roy King, Liz Patrick, Andy Warhol, Linda Lee Cadwell, Matthew Meshekoff, Paul Miller, Robert Altman, Robert Smigel
- Writers
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Will Forte, Bill Hader, Tina Fey, Kristen Wiig, Chris Parnell, Asa Taccone, John Lutz, Tom Schiller, Simon Rich, Michael Patrick O’Brien, Nicki Minaj, Herbert Sargent, Matt Piedmont, John Solomon, Chris Kelly, Alan Zweibel, Kent Sublette, Ari Katcher, Marika Sawyer, Sarah Schnedier, Scott Jung, Justin Franks, Jerrod Bettis, Rhiannon Bryan
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Adam McKay
Self / Various
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Al Roker
Self / Margaret Jo McCullin / Various
