TENSE SNL SEASON FINALE

The SNL season finale ended with a farewell sketch for 7 year veteran, and one of the greatest cast members of all time, Kristen Wiig.  It was a great tribute that was more heartfelt than anything i've ever seen on SNL.  But something happened during that final sketch that has gone largely unreported.

Jason Sudeikis was a complete mess during the Wiig sendoff.  Sure, it definitely appeared to be emotional for many of the cast members, but the way Sudeikis was acting was rather strange.

Sudeikis, like Wiig (and Andy Samberg), is a 7 year veteran of Saturday Night Live.  A little known fact about SNL is that when you are brought on, you are signed to a 7 year contract that Lorne Michaels can rip up anytime should you be "let go" or if it "isn't working out."  That's kind of got a MLB service time vibe to it, but the point is that Sudeikis and Samberg's contracts are up.

The future of Sudeikis and Samberg on SNL has not been publicly reported, with the latest tidbits coming out that decisions on the cast would be made in July.  Samberg's departure became evident in the episode before last when it marked the 100th digital short.  It has a finale type of vibe to it, and in the season finale he did another digital short which featured Chris Parnell.  The very first digital short was "Lazy Sunday" with Chris Parnell, and the digital short series is apparently coming to an end with another Samberg/Parnell rap (this time about Sister Act 2: The Musical).  Samberg gets the last words, and it definitely had the vibe of "peace i'm out."

But back to the most tense moment I think i've ever seen on SNL.  The video is linked below.  Thanks Hulu!

http://www.hulu.com/watch/363338/saturday-night-live-shes-a-rainbow

The cast definitely is emotional during their personal goodbyes to Wiig, but notice the emotions of Sudeikis after he says goodbye to Wiig.  He goes straight to the back, and appears to be either really emotional or really frustrated.  Either way, he was a complete mess.

It's hard to pencil in exactly where his emotions were coming from though.  I want to be clear that I don't know, but speculating on this makes me fear for the worst.  Could he have been angry?  Maybe that the show is giving Wiig a huge personal sendoff, but not him?  As some of the old cast members come out on stage, notice you lose sight of Sudeikis. In the end, you see him in the back left but he is clearly separated from the rest of the crew.

Hey, i'm just throwing stuff out there.  Maybe when he gets extra emotional that's just the way he looks.  He might just look like an angry, jealous person when he's super emotional.  I'm not calling him an angry, jealous person.  It was just an odd visual, and came across extra tense.

I've speculated over the last few months that Sudeikis has been disconnected from the show.  I've noticed a blatant lack of preparation as far as knowing your lines.  There have been plenty of sketches where he has just been flat out bad.  It's pretty obvious that he doesn't want to be there.

I feel like Andy Samberg is finished, but might show up from time to time like plenty of old cast members do.  For Sudeikis, I hope that he works out a short term deal with SNL over the summer for him to work a half-season.  They did the same with Amy Poehler in 2008, during the election when they needed her to stay aboard and play Hillary Clinton.  Sudeikis is the man that plays Mitt Romney, and it wouldn't surprise me if he comes back for just a couple months until after the election.  It also wouldn't surprise me one bit if that was the end of Sudeikis.

No matter what he was doing, thinking, or feeling on Saturday night, watching what transpired was the most tension i've ever seen in my 20 year career of watching Saturday Night Live.  Whether he was sad, frustrated, angry, jealous, or just flat out emotional, it was clearly odd behavior and I think it's telling on the future of Jason Sudeikis on SNL.  There's not one.

CirqueTV Episode 14

THANK YOU NBC

NBC has received quite a bit of criticism over the last couple of years.  They're ratings have been in the tank, but they made some moves this week regarding the 2012-2013 schedule that are very admirable.

I'm way too biased here, but the network renewed Community for a Season 4, despite it's low ratings.  Why would they renew a show that isn't doing a bit of good ratings wise?  Well, the ratings system is so flawed that it doesn't give you the full impact that the show actually has.  It's the system in place now though, and that's what will be worked with.  Community's fanbase is rabid, but they are young.  Many don't watch it live.  Thursday night at 7PM isn't a great television watching time anymore like it was in the days of Friends and Seinfeld.  Community does have decent DVR ratings and even a larger viewership on Hulu.  That's a lot of college and early 20's aged kids that make most of that up, and that's why they don't show up as a heavy hitter in the actual weekly ratings.  Plus, it's quirky, smart, different, and sometimes so over the top that it's impossible to even realize what's going on.  Even some of the cast members have admitted that they didn't really know what the heck they were shooting.

The order was only for 13 episodes, which will put them at 84 total.  According to tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com 88 is considered the minimum amount for Monday-Friday syndication.  There's no doubt that Community will be one of the first options to get an extended order should NBC sour on one of it's new sitcoms in the fall or spring.  This is also not being labeled as a final season, although I think we should probably prepare for that being the case.

I love that NBC is putting faith in the popularity that this show has online.  I also love that NBC is trying to make itself the comedy network.  Although the ratings don't show it, it has definitely had the best sitcoms as a whole over the last 2 decades.  I think they are realizing the rise of cable and understanding the dramas very rarely can compete with the likes of the less censored FX, HBO, SHOWTIME, ETC...

NBC doesn't come without flaws though.  They still seem deadset on trying to have an identity in the Multi-Camera genre as they renewed Whitney, one of the more awful shows i've ever seen in my life.  This is the first time a multi-camera show has made it to Season 2 on a network other than CBS since 2007.  The Tim Allen show Last Man Standing pulled that off on ABC as well.  Don't expect Whitney to see a Season 3, but as always I could be wrong.

After NBC pleases me with the renewal of Community, they follow that up by even more good news.  Parks and Recreation will be renewed for a 5th season.  At first, it was reported that it would only be a 13 episode order, but that rumor was quickly debunked as NBC announced that the Parks and Recreation Season 5 would be 22 episodes!

Parks and Recreation creator Michael Schur admitted that they had to approach the Season 4 finale "Win, Lose, or Draw" as a series finale, because their future was still up in the air.  I don't think many people had any doubt about the return of Parks and Recreation, but it's a shady business.

I don't like to pit comedies and dramas up against each other, because it's such a different animal.  I've said it before and i'll say it again, Parks and Recreation is my favorite sitcom of all-time.  I'm in love with every character on that show.   It's brilliant, heartfelt, somewhat original, has a talented cast and writing staff, and it deserves to be on the air as long as the cast and staff want to do it.

Like Community, once this show hits syndication it'll be popular to the masses, but for now it's a show not nearly enough people are viewing.

In closing, great job NBC and thank you for renewing two of my favorite shows.  I hope you continue this direction of more comedy and less drama!