The “Late Show with Stephen Colbert” ends this week. When CBS announced the show’s cancellation last summer, the network said in a statement that it was “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.” There’s still some debate around what happened and why, but for Wesley Morris, the demise of the long-running franchise brought up feelings about another late-night show: “Saturday Night Live.” Maybe, after 51 years, “S.N.L.” should end too.

So Wesley invited Jason Zinoman, a Times critic at large, to discuss “S.N.L.” and the beleaguered state of late-night television. What is worth saving?

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