Over the past few months, we’ve discovered On Demand, the service on our Time-Warner Cable that gives us access to recent shows. (While we’ve had T-W for years, we only got the cable box hooked up once we got the big screen HD TV last year, and even then we didn’t pay much attention to it, focusing on our non-HD ReplayTV. I’d assumed that On Demand was just for paid material.)
So tonight, I went to watch this week’s Saturday Night Live, and found it a bit odd going. There was no monologue. Guest host Justin Beiber didn’t show up until midway through the second sketch. “Weekend Update” came very early in the show, and then I realized that we hadn’t gotten the musical performance that usually comes before the fake news. So I paused the show to see the rnning length… this eighty-five minute show was clocking in at 49 minutes. By the time I hit the end, I realized that not only were both of the usual two musical performances missing, but that the host thanked a special guest star who I had not seen.
I haven’t yet checked if this abridged edition is standard for SNL On Demand, or whether there was something special going on in this case (perhaps Bieber has some exclusive agreement for video of musical performances?) But frankly, with a lot of the episodes I’d be happy to get to “Weekend Update” faster.
SNL appears pretty much the same way on Comcast’s On Demand — with minutes missing and never any musical numbers. I gave up on that version long ago. News sites usually link to the best sketches on Hulu the next day anyway.