“Saturday Night Live” celebrated its 50th anniversary on Sunday night with a red-carpet gala followed by a mixed live and pre-recorded special that featured an entire galaxy of cast members from the original 1975 season to today’s talent.

At the end of the special, Paul McCartney performed a medley and then a huge gathering stood on stage at Studio 8H for the traditional goodbye signoff. Two original “Not Ready For Prime Time Players” SNL cast members, Jane Curtain and Laraine Newman, held aloft a photo of their friend and castmate Gilda Radner, who had died from ovarian cancer at age 42 in 1989.

It was a sweet, touching moment of the original cast’s only other female performers honoring the legacy of their late friend, someone who helped build the foundation of an iconic American television property. Someone who was funny as hell to a little kid watching in suburban Cleveland, staying up late with his big sister and giggling at Gilda’s antics.

The only problem was that Curtain and Newman’s lovely tribute didn’t air live in Detroit, where Radner was born in 1946 and grew up attending University Liggett School in Grosse Pointe Woods. She later attended the University of Michigan before launching her successful comedy career (and even marrying the One True Willy Wonka). The nonprofit Gilda’s Club support organization for cancer patients and their loved ones has locations in Royal Oak, Detroit, and St. Clair Shores (and virtually).

That’s a pretty good connection to this market.

So why didn’t the end of the special air in Detroit? Because WDIV Ch. 4, the market’s NBC affiliate, cut to local news, weather, and sports well before the show ended.

The station reportedly said something about the mistake during the newscast (I had stopped watching) and later issued a brief apology on Twitter for what it termed a “technical issue.”

A note to followers: We sincerely apologize for the technical issue that resulted in cutting off the end of #SNL50 tonight. You can watch the full episode on Peacock.

This morning, the station’s general manager posted a fuller apology and explanation online, admitting it was ” simply human error” rather than a programming decision. He acknowledged they had planned for 15 minutes of the special running long. Thirteen minutes was missed.

“We value these special moments in television history as much as you do, and we’re taking steps today to prevent similar technical issues in the future. We know this information doesn’t fix your viewing experience last night, but know we are doing everything in our power to make sure this type of thing doesn’t happen again. Again, please accept my sincerest apology,” WDIV GM Bob Ellis wrote.

WDIV is owned by Graham Media Group, and its stations in Houston and Roanoke also cut to local news at the same time. Odd that three sister stations made the same fuck-up. Excuse me, simple human error. Or technical issues.

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how or why it happened. It’s over. The moment has passed.

Yes, there are much bigger problems in the world right now. More important hills to die on. But this blunder, for me and some others, was especially galling. In a world that was supposed to be made more equitable and comfortable for all of us with progress as humans and with technology, we instead get a stream of fresh hassles and disappointments.

Detroit is the 14th largest U.S. media market (and Houston is the 6th biggest). This isn’t Topeka or Zanesville, where the talent and technical broadcast staff are working their way up to the big markets (or working their way down). You are not supposed to make “technical issue” errors on something like this, even late on a Sunday night, in one of the top markets.

So yeah, in 2025 a major-market TV station shouldn’t commit such a mistake but they did. And yes, one can stream the end of the special on Peacock and I’m sure there are clips all over social media. But the magical moment has passed.

We get only a certain number of special moments in our lives, and Gilda Radner’s fans were robbed of one Sunday night. Again, this is a minor issue. I get that. But goddamn, life increasingly feels like we jump from mistake to tragedy to annoyance with increasingly regularity.

I grew up with SNL, through the best years and the lean years. Gilda Radner is among my earliest memories, from the live shows to many reruns and specials. I can still hear her say “Baba Wawa” and fondly recall the voices and mannerisms of Emily Litella (“Bitch!”) and Roseanne Roseannadanna. Her work will always make me smile.

Radner was a brilliant comedian and deserved better, from show business, from life, and certainly from her hometown TV station.

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