Variety reports that most of “Saturday Night Live’s” below-the-line production staff was fired on Friday morning by NBC in light of the writers strike and the fact that the show hasn’t produced a new episode since November 3.
Apparently upward of 50 people were cut, with only a handful of staff members remaining on the payroll.
“SNL” actors have not been formally terminated but rather placed on an unpaid “hiatus” like many other actors on shows shut down by the strike.
On Saturday night, most of the current “SNL” cast took part in a live staging of the sketch-comedy stalwart at New York’s Upright Citizens Brigade theater.
The sold-out $20 per-ticket performance, hosted by the comedy troupe co-founded by “SNL” player Amy Poehler, was a benefit to aid the pinkslipped production staffers.
