SNL Alums Dish on Behind-the-Scenes Toxicity

Veteran entertainment journalist Maureen Ryan’s new book, Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood, exposes the troubled work environments behind some of our favorite TV series. Was there any doubt that she’d take on Lorne Michaels and his late-night behemoth, Saturday Night Live?

Ahead of Ryan’s book release, Vanity Fair published an excerpt in which Damon Lindelof owned up to the allegations of racism and toxicity on the set of Lost. On Tuesday, The Hollywood Reporter published another excerpt in which Ryan discusses the infamous all-consuming, pressure-filled work environment at SNL—and one former fan’s allegation that Horatio Sanz groomed her from the age of 15 before sexually assaulting her when she was 17. (In a 2021 statement, Sanz’s attorney Andrew Brettler called the allegations “categorically false”; THR notes the suit settled last fall.)

“Michaels’s long tenure as a power player and SNL’s enduring importance are intertwined with a culture of impunity within the world of comedy,” Ryan writes, “in which abuse and toxicity are not just permitted but often celebrated.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.