Originally, creator Lorne Michaels had to call the program NBC’s Saturday Night because Howard Cosell had a show on called Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell.
NBC bought the naming rights and in 1977 it was dubbed “Saturday Night Live.”
The Smithsonian explains how it all began.
“SNL” owes its start to Johnny Carson’s desire for more time off. In 1974, the talk show host asked NBC to air reruns of “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” on weeknights instead of weekends, as the network had been doing for years. That way, he could have some extra days off during the week.
