“Live From New York, It’s Saturday Night!”
After a summer hiatus of four and a half months, Saturday Night Live has returned for Season 51! During its break, Lorne Michaels, the creator of SNL, introduced a “cast shakeup,” which included the releasing of Micahel Longfellow, Ego Nwodim, Devon Walker, Emil Wakim, and Heidi Garnder from the cast. But, this shakeup also introduced five new replacements, consisting of Kam Patterson, Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane, Veronika Slowikoska, and Ben Marshall, who was part of the comedy group Please Don’t Destroy, a recently featured group in the newest seasons of SNL. Please Don’t Destroy was sadly part of the ‘shakeup’ and the group was released from the show, leaving only Ben Marshall and Martin Herlihy, with Marshall being promoted to a featured player and Herlihy remaining on the writing staff.
Other remaining cast members include Kenan Thompson, Michael Che, Colin Jost, Bowen Yang, Mikey Day, Chloe Fineman, Marcello Hernández, Andrew Dismukes, James Austin Johnson, Sarah Sherman and Season 50’s returning players, Ashley Padilla and Jane Wickline.
“I´ve seen clips on SNL online and it always gives me a laugh, the new hosts for this season seem really exciting,” said senior Tina Katsigiorgis.
While most fans are excited about the returning cast members, others are displeased with the choices of which cast members were released from the show. Online, there are negative comments centered on Kenan Thompson returning for his 23rd year, claiming that it’s time for him to move onto other projects in life and leave SNL. Fans are also skeptical about the return of the show for another season after celebrating its 50th season last year, claiming that it’s finally time to say farewell.
“Kenan Thompson is so entertaining to watch and I’m so glad he’s here this season. I understand that people don’t want him there anymore, but I personally love seeing him on SNL and I hope he’s there for many more years to come,” said junior Gabe Jaffe.
But Lorne Michaels wouldn’t listen to any negative feedback, and he publicly announced who would host the first three episodes of this season’s Saturday Night Live. On Oct. 4, SNL premiered its 989th episode with host Bad Bunny and musical guest Doja Cat. The show opened with a political cold open, centered around mocking Pete Hegseth, who was played by comedian Colin Jost, ridiculing the Defense Secretary’s address to military leaders in Quantico, Virginia, last week. Towards the end of Bad Bunny’s monologue, he delivered a message in Spanish about how he feels about performing in the superbowl saying, “It’s more than an achievement for myself, it’s an achievement for all of us, shows our footprint, and our contribution to this country.”
During the weekend update portion of the show, guests included new cast member Kam Patterson and Dobby the House elf, portrayed by Bowen Yang. musical guest Doja Cat performed her songs, “aaahh men!” and “Gorgeous,” receiving very loud and gracious applause after each performance.
After the show concluded, reviews poured in over the course of the week. To Lorne Michael’s disappointment, the reviews were mostly negative, with critics pointing out a certain sketch titled, “Inventing Spanish,” because of the sketch’s awkward pauses and irrelevant dialogue.
Luckily for SNL, last weekend was a major success! It also was a big milestone for SNL, because it was the 50th anniversary of the first episode of SNL, which was hosted by George Carlin with musical guests Billy Preston and Janis Ian. The reviews poured in fast for last week and on Monday, almost every review was positive. Many people said that the host, former SNL cast member Amy Poehler, was the perfect choice for this milestone episode and that musical guest, Role Model, kept the crowd fairly entertained during his performances, even bringing on singer Charli XCX.
“I love the new SNL line up because the show has new, young members that can work with seasoned actors who contributed to the show’s success.” said Senior Amanda Mellow
Sabrina Carpenter had double duty on the third episode of SNL 51 on Oct. 18, hosting and performing as the musical guest. The episode opened with another skit surrounding the famous “Domingo”, performing parodies of “The Fate of Ophelia” by Taylor Swift and “Abracadabra” by Lady Gaga. Other sketches include a 12-year-old boy podcast, a girlboss seminar, an over-the-top parody performance of a washing machine, and many more hilarious skits and moments. Carpenter performed two of her new hit songs, “Manchild”, into a hairbrush microphone, and “Nobody’s Son” to close out the show.