Saturday Night Live comes back tonight Honestly thanks to a hiatus filled with casting announcements and Update shakeups and meticulous analysis of the show s history (not to mention Live from New York s rerelease) it sort of feels like it never left. (Just me )
Which doesn t mean we shouldn t be champing at the bit for tonight s 40th season premiere a sure to be splashy episode featuring a leaner meaner cast an all new pair at the Weekend Update desk and a host with potential to immediately join the list of greats. Maybe it d be best to go over topics of discussion point by point
The cast Wheelan Milhiser and Wells are out while Mike O Brien has moved back to the writers room for good. (A moment of silence for Monster Pals.) Onetime SNL writer/new Update anchor Michael Che and 20 year old Pete Davidson the fourth youngest person ever to join the cast of SNL as well as only the fourth person in history not to be of legal drinking age while on the show are in.
Honestly the departures listed above won t have a huge effect on SNL mostly because few of those booted featured players were ever given much to do. (Which you know would be why their contracts weren t renewed.) I m eager to see what happens if Davidson s given the spotlight though there s something vaguely Andy Sambergian about his comedy and given what happened last season the show could definitely use a figure like that.
Kenan s possible upcoming departure He s been on the show long enough that this deserves its own bullet point. If this is in fact his last year we can expect him to have an increased presence this year and to bring back What Up With That which hasn t appeared on SNL since December 2012 if you can believe that.
Update Let s have another moment of silence for Cecily Strong. Even if she really did want to be released from Update in order to do more sketch work it s hard to argue that Colin Jost has made a strong case for himself as Update anchor especially when compared to Strong.
That said Jost only had eight shows to try to climb out from under Seth Meyers shadow last season and even he knows that there s a lot of room for improvement. Lorne Michaels promised that he landed upon the new team of Jost and Che only after extensive chemistry readings so clearly at least he believes that the guys work well together maybe Che s deadpan Daily Show honed style can bring out more of Jost s personality.
The show s announcer A third moment of silence a real one this time for the dearly departed Don Pardo who died August 18 after a career in showbusiness that lasted more than seven decades. His passing truly means the end of an era and it ll be strange and jarring to see a set of opening credits that aren t accompanied by his booming voice. Luckily the show has found a worthy successor in Darrell Hammond will he try to imitate Pardo s signature sound or give us something completely different
Chris Pratt What s left to say about the most charming man in the galaxy except that a) we re right to expect great things from him and b) his appearance all but ensures a cameo from the great Amy Poehler (And/or his wife Anna Faris who had at least one great sketch when she hosted SNL back in 2011.)
Ariana Grande Yep she and her ponytail are going to be on the show too And given her background I predict that she ll leave the musical performance stage for at least one sketch most likely something pretaped.
So what s actually going to happen tonight I d guess a cold open about the NFL s various woes (unless South Park tapped that well dry) a monologue about Chris Pratt s penchant for losing and gaining weight for roles maybe some kind of Robin Williams shoutout (he hadn t hosted since the 80s but come on it s Robin Williams) and lots and lots of mentions about this being a landmark season for SNL even though the big 40th anniversary special isn t happening until February of next year. Also if Pratt doesn t sing a bro rock song at some point that s a major opportunity wasted.
What are you hoping to see from Chris Pratt and Ariana Grande tonight not to mention SNL s own cast Talk amongst yourselves here and check back in the morning for our full season premiere recap.
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