Saturday Night Live may be known first and foremost as a sketch comedy show, but from the very first episode of SNL music has also played an important role in its history. That history is going to be front and center in a brand new documentary, Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music, which airs on Monday, January 27, on NBC starting at 8 pm ET/PT.
Co-directed by Questlove and Oz Rodriguez, the full-length documentary (it’s taking up the entire three-hour NBC primetime block on January 27, Ladies & Gentlemen features untold stories behind the “culture-defining, groundbreaking and newsmaking musical performances,” as NBC describes it, from SNL’s first 50 years.
So many of those involved in these moments are part of the documentary, including musicians Bad Bunny, DJ Breakout, Elvis Costello, Miley Cyrus, Billie Eilish & Finneas, Dave Grohl, Debbie Harry & Chris Stein, Mick Jagger, Dua Lipa, Darryl DMC McDaniels, Tom Morello, Kacey Musgraves, Olivia Rodrigo, MC Sha-Rack, Paul Simon, Chris Stapleton, Justin Timberlake, Lee Ving and Jack White. Key SNL figures will also be featured, like Lorne Michaels, Fred Armisen, Conan O’Brien, Eli Brueggemann, Jane Curtin, Jimmy Fallon, Al Franken, Josiah Gluck, Bill Hader, Steve Higgins, Marci Klein, Melanie Malone, Tom Malone, Mary Ellen Matthews, Eddie Murphy, Ego Nwodim, Liz Patrick, Leon Pendarvis, Lenny Pickett, Joe Piscopo, Andy Samberg, Brian Siedlecki, Akiva Schaffer, Paul Shaffer, Sarah Sherman, Howard Shore, Robert Smigel, Jorma Taccone, Kenan Thompson, Maya Rudolph, Hal Willner and Bowen Yang.
In order to watch Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music when it airs tonight you must have access to your local NBC station. That can come from a traditional pay-TV provider, a TV antenna, a live TV streaming service (Fubo, Hulu with Live TV, Sling TV, YouTube TV) or a Peacock Premium Plus subscription. All Peacock subscribers can watch the documentary on-demand starting Tuesday, January 28.
SNL put this documentary in good hands. While Questlove may be best known for his time with The Roots, he is also an Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker for Summer of Soul. Rodriguez, meanwhile, has a lot of experience directing segments and specials for SNL, while some of his other credits include TV shows like Nobody Wants This and Goosebumps: The Vanishing.
This is just part of the massive celebration that has been going on for SNL’s 50th anniversary. Earlier this month the four-part documentary SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night, executive produced by Morgan Neville, premiered on Peacock. While no one directly associated with SNL was involved, we also got Saturday Night in fall 2024, a movie that retold the events of the Saturday Night Live premiere episode. Finally, the celebration is set to cap off with a primetime SNL 50th anniversary special on Sunday, February 16, on NBC.
Before that though, we have Ladies & Gentlemen. Get a preview of the documentary by watching the trailer right here:
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