Where Is Saturday Night Live Filmed? Studio 8H at 30 Rockefeller Plaza

Saturday Night Live is filmed in Studio 8H, a 6,102 square foot television studio inside 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan. The show has come from that room since 1975. Tickets are free, but NBC accepts requests by email in August only. The British version is made in London instead.

That last line matters, because this search splits two ways: there is an American show and a British one. SNL UK is shot at BBC Studios’ TC1, the flagship studio at London’s Television Centre, which we covered in full here. LateNighter drew the parallel itself, noting that TC1 is as steeped in television history as Studio 8H at NBC’s Rockefeller Center headquarters. Everything below this paragraph is about New York.

The world’s largest radio studio, revamped for $250,000

Studio 8H began as a radio room, and an unusually grand one. At the time of construction it was the world’s largest radio studio, built three storeys high and roomy enough to house a full orchestra. NBC converted it for television use in 1950, primarily to put Kraft Television Theatre out live. It was revamped again just before SNL’s 1975 premiere at a cost of $250,000. That quarter-million is the only renovation figure any of the sources puts a number on.

Nobody I’ve read makes much of the obvious consequence. A sketch show on American network television is still running out of a radio hall, converted for television use in 1950 and refitted just before the 1975 premiere at a cost of $250,000. Anyone who has loaded a PA into a function room with one double door and an unblockable fire exit will recognise the shape of that problem. Scale it up to a national broadcast.

How do you get SNL tickets?

Free, by email, and only in August. NBC’s own ticket page states that SNL tickets are free and distributed through an annual email lottery held each August. Requests go to SNLTICKETS@NBCUNI.COM, and August is the only time of the year when submissions are accepted. If you’re reading this outside August, that window is shut: August is the only time of the year when ticket requests are accepted.

Standby is the other route, and it runs against a given show day. The online standby reservation goes live at 10am on the Thursday before a show day. Your entire party then has to check in to the in-person standby line between 6pm and 7pm on the Friday. Cards are handed out at approximately 12:01am on the Saturday morning. NBC is unusually blunt in print that standby spots are first-come, first-served and do not guarantee admission. That’s worth rereading before you commit a Friday night to it, because the queue only gets you a card and the card only gets you a maybe.

Ticket holders choose between the 8pm dress rehearsal and the 11.30pm live show, and I’d take the dress on principle. A live show that has to be cut for time is being cut from something, and the dress is where that something still exists. None of NBC’s pages describes how different the two feel from a seat, so that’s my hunch rather than reporting. Free is the word NBC uses, and what it actually costs you is the stretch between the 6pm check-in and the card at 12.01am.

Can you visit Studio 8H on the NBC Studios tour?

You can buy a guided tour of the building, but NBC will not promise it stops at Studio 8H. The Tour at NBC Studios runs from 30 Rockefeller Plaza, and general admission costs $48, with children between 8 and 17 years old at $42. It typically lasts 75 to 90 minutes, covering the distance of about three city blocks. NBC does say the tour gives access to studios connected to shows including Saturday Night Live. Then the caveat: what you see depends on factors like production schedules and studio access availability.

Read that as written. A working studio in the middle of a 74-hour turnaround is not a visitor attraction that week, and no tour operator can override a build. Forty-eight dollars buys you much the same maybe as a midnight standby card, with about three city blocks of walking thrown in and nobody handing anything out at 12.01am.

74 hours from read-through to broadcast

SNL’s build week is short enough that the crew measure it in hours rather than days. In NBCUniversal’s own feature on the Studio 8H crew, head electrician William McGuiness marked out the window. It runs from the Wednesday night read-through, finishing around 9.30pm, to Saturday night at 11.30pm. That is roughly 74 hours to design, rig, dress and light a whole show. Donna Richards, who works wardrobe and dresses the hosts, was more direct about the room itself in the same feature:

Viewers would be shocked to see how small our space is and how fast this show comes together!

NBCUniversal announced on 9 September 2026 that NBA champion Jalen Brunson would host the season 52 premiere on 26 September 2026, his first time hosting, with KATSEYE as musical guest. LateNighter had reported back in July that the date would give SNL its earliest season opener since 2012, when season 38 premiered on 15 September. Brunson had never hosted before, which tells you plenty about how that slot gets filled now. Anybody who has watched a club owner book the local radio presenter over the better act knows what that trade looks like.

Sources

• NBC, How to Get SNL Tickets
• NBC, About The Tour at NBC Studios at 30 Rock and How to Get Tickets
• NBCUniversal, Live from Studio 8H: Meet the Saturday Night Live Crew
• NBCUniversal, SNL to premiere its 52nd season on 26 September
• LateNighter, SNL Sets Season 52 Premiere, Its Earliest in 14 Years
• LateNighter, SNL UK’s Home Studio Is Steeped in Television History
• Wikipedia, Studio 8H

One consolation if you miss the lottery and the queue: the show streams live on Peacock. That’s alongside the NBC broadcast, at 11:30 p.m. ET and 8:30 p.m. PT. So the seat the standby card might not have got you comes free with a sofa and nobody checking your party in at 6pm on the Friday.