• Ad Age, Friday, October 6, 2006 12:15 PM

"Studio 60" and "30 Rock" may be helping NBC revive "Saturday Night Live," the show those two prime-time programs are based on. Ratings show a slightly improved picture for the long-running comedy-sketch program. That's good news for NBC. It also happens to mirror a story line on "Studio 60," when the fictional NBS entertainment president congratulates the staff on a ratings uptick. But in real life, NBC has struggled with "SNL," which averaged only about 6 million viewers last season--its lowest ever. Plus, there have been reports that the network has made huge budget cuts on the series, leading to the firing of vets such as Chris Parnell and Horatio Sanz. But according to an NBC executive, the network has big plans for the "SNL" Web site, and it wants to give viewers the chance to go behind the scenes as the show is being produced.

Read the whole story at Ad Age »