SNL 40 And The Live Future Of Saturday Night Live

SNL 40has come to its conclusion–at long last–and while the marathon celebration reminded millions of howSaturday Night Livehas changed over the pastfour decades, it also revealedquite a lot about what has changed about the media landscape during thesame period.

But perhaps what’s clearest is that, althoughSNLis still a live show, it’s not viewedin real-time in the way that it once was–and that its audience is moving more and more toward time-shifted consumption patterns.

Last quarter,tradition...