Sports TV Exec Explains NBC's Creation Of Saturday Night's Main Event

Following the success of the inaugural WrestleMania, NBC became interested in scheduling WWE (then WWF) content for their block of late-night Saturday programming. Former NBC employee, WWE Executive and the president of YES Network, John Filippelli, disclosed in an interview on "The Insiders" podcast it was Dick Ebersol's influence at NBC that led to the creation of "Saturday Night's Main Event" as an occasional fill-in for "Saturday Night Live."

"Ebersol saw that success and then he just piggybacked and made a series out of it," said Filippelli. "We had no intention of doing that. So you've got to give Dick credit for advancing it to where he did. We had nothing to do with that advancement. That was all Ebersol."

The executive producer of "SNL" from 1981 to 1985, Ebersol created "No Sleep Productions" in 1983. Operating as an independent production company, Ebersol produced late-night content for NBC, such as "Friday Night Videos." Ebersol left his "SNL" position in 1985 to focus more on his company as well as co-produce "Saturday Night's Main Event" with Vince McMahon.

The show debuted on May 11, 1985, and garnered an 8.8 television rating. The five wrestling specials in 1986 registered ratings of 10.4, 10, 9.3, 9.4, and 9.7. The show set a series high of 11.6 on March 14, 1987, which was two weeks before WrestleMania III. In total, NBC aired 29 "Saturday Night Main Event" specials from 1985 to 1991 as well as five Friday night spin-off specials of "The Main Event."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "The Insiders" podcast with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.