When I was younger, almost every Sunday morning started off by watching the newest episode of Saturday Night Live. I was always too young to watch the show when it aired late Saturday night and this tradition just stuck throughout the years. Since then, I’ve begun to think of myself as a SNL history expert.

I remember everything from when Seth Meyers solo anchored “Weekend Update” to the special 40th anniversary episode. Since then, cast members have come and gone making for a new, and in my opinion worse, era of the show. This 48th season lost long-time cast members Aidy Bryant, Kyle Mooney, and Kate McKinnon. These actors increased the overall quality of the show each episode, giving excellent preformances no matter the skit.

Although these major losses from the cast have changed my overall opinion of the show each week, it is not what has made me believe that SNL is on its downfall. For me, it is the quality of the sketches that has lost the ‘wow factor’.

It seems as if I can’t get through a single episode without having to watch multiple pre-recorded sketches, breaking with the tradition of live comedy that makes SNL so special for its audience. These skits frequently turn out to be some sort of poorly put together comedic rap, last season always preformed by Pete Davidson. They are catered to a new, younger audience which takes away from the quality of the comedy that appears of the screen. They are now tend to be filled with countless Gen Z references that the cast members don’t even seem to understand themselves. This results in awkward line delivery that can be recognized by any audience member.

For the many years that the show has aired, I’ve always percieved it to be one of those timeless programs that will be around until I am much older. The concept of a live, late-night, sketch show is unique and like nothing else that has aired on TV since its premier. But if SNL continues to tarnish its brand with poor preformaces of unfunny, recorded skits of little substance, I will begin to spend my Sunday mornings sleeping in instead.