Saturday Night Live (SNL) is a difficult show to get into, but standby tickets allow for those who missed the show’s lottery to try to see the popular show.
The SNL lottery opens for the month of August every year. Tickets are not guaranteed and if you do get chosen, they choose the show for you. The fall-back if you don’t get lottery tickets is to try the stand-by line. This is how it works.
1. Thursday Night
During show week, a link opens up on Thursday at 10 a.m. EST. Here, you can choose whether you want to try to attend the 8 p.m. dress rehearsal or the 11:30 p.m. live show. This can cause flashbacks to trying to get tickets on Ticketmaster, so it’s better to be ready to go sooner rather than later. Luckily, there is no cost to getting these stand-by tickets.
2. The Reservation + Friday Night
After Thursday’s fiasco, you should receive an email within the next 24 hours that tells you what number you will be in line. The number you get can range anywhere from 1-300. Whenever I tried it with my friend, we were numbers 204 and 205 for Friday night. When going to stand in line for SNL, you must dress for the weather. You and your party will be standing outside for five to six hours as the line starts at six p.m. and becomes locked in place at 7. If it’s cold out, make sure to wear multiple layers, a scarf, gloves, beanie and some hot hands to be prepared. It’s also good to note that you won’t want to be standing for those long hours and to bring a blanket or seating pad to sit on. Snacks are a must as even though NBC does hand out soup and hot chocolate to those in line, they do it towards the beginning of the five hours leaving you plenty of time to get hungrier as the midnight hour creeps up.
TIP: Bring something to do like a book, card games, etc. so that your not bored and neither are your line companions!
3. The end of Friday and the beginning of Saturday
Once the clock strikes midnight, the standby workers start down the line handing out new numbers to align with who braved through the five hours. These are the final numbers you will be given and will be the number you get for the show. My friend and I dropped down to 85 and 86, a significant difference to our original numbers. This is when you must decide if it is worth it for you to come back to NBC for the show. Online, it says that 40-80 people from standby get into Studio B and it does hold weight. That being said, trust your gut!
5. Saturday Night
If you believe your number is good enough to attempt another wait in line, this time it will be a much smoother ride. The line for Saturday night is inside Rockefeller in the NBC Studios gift shop. You check in outside of the shop and head into another line. The cut-off to be in this line is between 9:45 and 10 p.m. which is an hour and a half before show-time. They don’t start bringing you upstairs until 10:45-11ish where you stand and anticipate whether or not you’ll get in. As they let the line into the studio, they do hand out water if you ask. By the time the clock hits 11:20, they start asking guests if they would be willing to split their group as seating becomes more scarce. They usually stop the line at 11:25, five minutes before the show.
Though this process can be tiring, it can have a great outcome or become a fun and silly fun fact to add for an icebreaker! Make sure you also remember to bring your ID and a phone charger! The next two shows are March 1 with Shane Gillis and Tate McRae, and March 8 with Lady Gaga on double duty!