7. Controversy Should Be Expected And Should Be Embraced With Open Arms
Part of the reason why Saturday Night Live is broadcast from 11:30 PM - 1 AM EST is because the time falls at an hour wherein the rules of broadcasting are relaxed. SNL was created in order to reflect a notion in American popular culture in the 1970s that television viewers felt that broadcast options were insulting to their intelligence. Thus, NBC's late Saturday evening program was intended to reflect a change in that expectation, and the broadcast time reflected an acceptance of this sentiment. In being controversial since its inception, SNL has always painted outside of the lines of the mainstream, accepting criticism and changing very little of the broadcast content, instead more changing the style of topic to reflect the times. Dissimilar to SNL, WWE went corporate after the financial success of the Attitude Era, a change that has neutered the company's ability to be wild, progressive and controversial. Instead, unlike SNL, WWE does a poor job of accepting product criticism, has changed much of its broadcasting content and not changed its style of program delivery to match the times. Whereas Saturday Night Live is always a sketch away from potentially catching fire as a program, WWE is instead solidly behind the times and in not being able to be "controversial," currently finds itself in a less-than-successful position.