One indication of how the program might have done was evident in a spike in ratings for the XFL game at 11:30, to a 7.4, precisely when ''Saturday Night Live'' would have started. An XFL statement yesterday said the game was adding viewers at that hour because of an overtime finish.

Mr. Ebersol called the events of Saturday ''one of the most bizarre nights I've been a part of.''

The initial power failure occurred because two generators were short on fuel. Then a player broke a leg and was on the field for 14 minutes before being removed by ambulance. Then, the game went into overtime.

All the while, Mr. Michaels was in the New York studio of ''Saturday Night Live,'' waiting for the game to end. When it was obvious that it would run over, he started his show in the studio on time, taping it to start as soon as the local news ended. That turned out to be 12:14 a.m. Neither the studio audience nor many of the performers, including Ms. Lopez, knew that the show was not being seen live.

Mr. Ebersol said, ''I couldn't feel more sympathetic or empathetic or however you want to put it, about the situation Lorne was put in.'' He said only he and Mr. Michaels really knew ''what it's like to have a studio filled with people and a star ready to go on'' since between them they have produced almost all the programs in the history of ''Saturday Night Live.''

Mr. Michaels declined to comment last night. But he told friends and associates over the weekend that he was, in the words of one close associate, ''despondent and enraged'' by what had happened. He told the associate that he could have tolerated having a program delayed by an extra-inning game with the Yankees in the World Series, but not for something like an XFL game.

''Lorne had hammered at Ebersol about the games' running over,'' the associate said, ''and was assured they wouldn't.''

Mr. Michaels was also said to be upset that no NBC executive made any moves to do anything about the delays as they were occurring on Saturday night.