Pete Davidson Says He Made ‘SNL’ ‘Tabloid-y’

Is “tabloid” era of “Saturday Night Live” over? Pete Davidson thinks so. The sketch series alum said during a recent appearance on “The Breakfast Club” radio show, which you can watch in the below video, that his own celebrity status helped make “SNL” more of a “trendy” show during his tenure. Davidson joined the cast at age 20 in 2014 and stayed for eight seasons, departing in 2022.

Davidson explained that the “SNL” brass as a “whole loved” that “people are talking about” the series, in part due to his own highly publicized personal life. “I brought a lot of pop culture into the show. I made it sort of a tabloid-y, trendy thing, unintentionally,” Davidson said, adding, “I don’t want someone on YouTube to be like, ‘Motherfucker thinks he’s the reason.’”

The actor also shared he felt “embarrassed” to be less experienced than his co-stars, many of whom were “10, 15 years older than me and working so hard.” Davidson said, “You got to remember, everyone there did Second City, improv, worked so hard. I’m not saying I didn’t work hard, but I was only doing comedy for three, four years.”

He added the media attention trained on his personal life also made him feel “hurt.” “I think after, like, a year or two, everyone saw how sad I was about it and embarrassed. Because I was never on Instagram flexing that lifestyle at all, I was very embarrassed by it. So I think after a while, they understood it. But at first they were like, ‘This kid’s just a loud— this has nothing to do with ‘SNL.’”

Davidson also explained how “SNL” had certain requirements for its stars. “At the time, you weren’t allowed to do stuff outside of the show that was a payday,” he said. “You (had to) dress up to go to the afterparty and all this shit. So I think I did rub people the wrong way, and I think it was just annoying for the cast.”

Davidson previously told Jon Berthnal during his “Real Ones” podcast that he at times felt like a “loser” due to his celebrity status. “Suddenly you’re in this zeitgeist and that has nothing to do with the work,” Davidson said of his tabloid-driven fame while on the series. “And that’s a really shitty feeling. I became more known before the work was there, but I was always working.”

Of certain “SNL” sketches he felt were at his expense, he added, “When your own show (pokes fun at you), I’d be sitting in the back watching the cold open and — the cold open (is) topical, political humor, whatever’s in the culture. And then, making fun of you. Then you’ve got to walk out and do a sketch next and hit your mark and the show just made fun of you. So, why are they going to laugh at you? Like, they just dogged you in front of everyone. And you’re like, ‘I’m a fucking loser, man.’”