Some of These ‘SNL’ Stars’ Biggest Purchases After Their First ‘SNL’ Check Prove the Show Doesn’t Pay Squat

Becoming a big shot comedian in New York City means busting your ass for a decade while earning next to no money from your comedy “career” before finally getting a Saturday Night Live audition, landing the part and then splurging on extravagant showbiz luxuries like “dinner” and “rent.”

Anyone who has to work a regular nine-to-five would understandably scoff at any nationally famous, regularly working TV actor who would dare to publicly complain about poor compensation. Across America, wages have been stagnant since the Reagan administration, and with grocery stores still charging gouge-prices post-pandemic, nobody who is struggling to make ends meet at a thankless job wants to hear about Pete Davidson’s problems with his penny-pinching former bosses at SNL. 

At the same time, anyone who assumes that each SNL cast member owns a luxury Manhattan penthouse and eats at Eleven Madison Park following every rehearsal should listen to Vulture’s interview with various comedy icons during their SNL 50th anniversary event when they asked SNL alumni about their biggest “splurge” purchase after their first SNL check cleared. It’s pretty clear that the only person at 30 Rockefeller Plaza who’s making Eleven-Madison-Park-every-night money is Lorne Michaels:

Now, let’s not break out the world’s smallest violin and play a sad cover of the Seinfeld theme song for Julia Louis-Dreyfus — even before she starred on the biggest sitcom of all time, Louis-Dreyfus is, famously, the daughter of billionaire Gérard Louis-Dreyfus, so there probably isn’t a pair of shoes in New York that’s beyond the literal heiress’ “budget.” Still, the quips we heard from other former SNL cast members show that the starting salary might not be high enough to justify a real “splurge” purchase like Sarah Silverman’s cashmere sweater.

While we’re happy for Bowen Yang and his basic Gucci shoes, given the realities of living in New York and starting at SNL, honestly, he probably should have thrown that check into a high-yield savings account or an index fund, once he covered rent. Davidson’s claim that he only made “like three grand an episode” when he started might seem to some like appropriate compensation for one week of playing pretend on TV, but, since SNL only puts out roughly 20 episodes per year, that’s not even enough money to live in a Manhattan studio apartment without a roommate.

SNL doesn’t publicly disclose its performers’ starting salary, but, by some estimates, it’s more than what Davidson jokingly approximated he earned in his first year back in 2014 and less than what most viewers would assume the stars of NBC’s biggest comedy would make. The infamously unreliable celebrity wealth tracking website Celebrity Net Worth claimed that first-year SNL players make $7,000 per episode in 2018, but, in that same year, The New York Times published an entire article about how the organization’s methodology for estimating show-business paychecks seems to be pulling the numbers directly out of their own ass.

Based on these SNL cast member’s purchases, we can place the starting salary for the most prestigious comedy show on TV somewhere between rent money and shitty couch money. That is, unless you’re Seth Meyers, then you’re somehow pulling in enough dough to hit Crate & Barrel and Best Buy in the same trip. I think we know how he got his talk show now — he’s the guy who cooks Lorne’s books.