'Saturday Night Live' paid its audience for attending the show
Maya Rudolph and Jim Carrey feature in 'Saturday Night Live'
A highly anticipated season 46 of 'Saturday NighT Live' premiered last week. The opening episode was shot at Studio 8H at Rockefeller Center in New York.
Recent reports suggest that the audience members were paid USD 150 cheque by the makers for participating in the show.
New York City has some of the most restrictive coronavirus rules in the country which means that media productions can only have an audience if it`s made up of paid individuals (cast, crew) who `work` for the production company.
Hence the audience membersof 'SNL' were paid for their time. It is not clear how many members of the audience were paid though but according to the guidelines a show can only have an audience that`s 25 per cent of its average size and can never be more than 100 people.
While 'SNL' did not share how much audience members were paid, Sean Ludwig told the The New York Times that he, along with seven friends who attended the premiere, each received a USD 150 cheque from Universal Television, which is part of NBC`s parent company.
Ludwig said, "We had no idea we would be paid before we were handed cheques. We were all very pleasantly surprised." He also added that before entering the building, he had to take a rapid COVID test and sign health paperwork.
According to the health department spokesperson, the show had confirmed that they followed the reopening guidance, including selecting audience members through a third-party screening and casting process and compensating them for their time as paid audience members.
While enjoying the show, the `SNL` audience members had to keep their masks on and were placed in small groups (of people they requested tickets with) and each group was socially distanced from the next one.
The Emmy-winning series plans on broadcasting live each week. The first episode saw Jim Carrey make his debut on SNL stage playing Joe Biden.
