Saturday Night Live has parted ways with music booker Brian Siedlecki, who has been with the show for nearly 30 years.
The long-running sketch show is known for iconic music performances and being one of the most coveted performing spots on television. Siedlecki has been a big part of that success, rising from an intern role on the show in 1996 to booking his first act, Nelly Furtado, in 2001.
Since then, he has been responsible for bringing some of the biggest names in music to their famous stage. Recent notable appearances include Paul McCartney performing Beatles hits with Will Ferrell playing cowbell (a reference to a famous SNL sketch); Megan Thee Stallion using her 2020 debut on the show to protest the shooting of Breonna Taylor; and Lily Allen bringing out Dakota Johnson as the title character of her track ‘Madeline’ during a performance last year.
Siedlecki, SNL, and network NBC have all declined to comment on the departure, which was first revealed by The Hollywood Reporter. The article states that the show still has two long-serving music bookers, Keri Powers and Rebecca Schwartz, who have each been with SNL for over a decade.
Music has also been a part of Saturday Night Live UK, the British spin-off that debuted in March of this year and will return in September for a second season. The debut season saw Kasabian perform ‘Release The Pressure’ and ‘Great Pretender’; Wolf Alice play ‘White Horses’ and ‘Leaning Against the Wall’; and Foo Fighters become the first international band to appear when they performed ‘Child Actor’ and ‘Caught in the Echo’ on the show.
Speaking to NME ahead of Kasabian’s appearance, Serge Pizzorno said: “It’s obviously an American institution that has been on over there for decades, so once people start to understand the structure of it and get the pace, then it’ll be great.
“What’s really beautiful is having music on the telly again. I might sound like a fossil here but I think that’s great,” he added. “Seeing a band have two songs and then having all the clips on socials is brilliant and we’ve been missing that opportunity for a while.