ROSWELL, Georgia – After Johnny Knoxville hosted one of the funniest episodes of Saturday Night Live all season, and possibly one of the funniest in the last few years, Will Ferrell returned last Saturday to host one of the worst SNLs I have ever seen. Aside from the “Cold Open” and “Celebrity Jeopardy!” the show got worse by the minute.

To add to the problems, SNL has been technically unsound for many of the past few episodes, a fact that is inexcusable. I have had many experiences with remote sports productions that have gone smoothly despite being in a new location every week, facing new challenges in each venue and juggling issues arising from producing TV for both standard and high definition. A show like SNL that is shot in a studio with its own control room in standard definition has no reason to be experiencing tech problems on a regular basis. Many of these errors have been made by operators rather than equipment. The show hosted by Tom Brady had several graphics that were put on screen at the wrong time; the Cameron Diaz-hosted episode was horribly flawed with misplaced or poorly-timed visual effects (like the pixelated blur made famous by “COPS”); and the Ferrell show most notably featured a cut to something other than a camera (still not sure what it was) during one of the sketches.

Director Beth McCarthy Miller has been nearly as disappointing directing the music guests as the bands have been performing. When it comes to live music, McCarthy Miller is the best around, but her direction of System of a Down and Queens of the Stone Age was absolutely dreadful. Unfortunately, the lighting, music mix and the performances were worse. The tech crew needs to end the 30th season with a stellar show this weekend, and the writers need to redeem themselves from last week’s unfortunate showing. Otherwise, this could be a very long summer for SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels working overtime to fix some serious issues.

Filed under: Late Night TV, Music/Variety, Opinion/Editorial, Technology, Television