If perhaps SNL seemed to be sleeping on the job with its two-hosts-per-month in 2017, they had good reason. Not only have the final four hosts been announced, including Jimmy Fallon, Melissa McCarthy and The Rock, but shows will air live across the country for the first time in history.
The rumors are true: SNL is taking Weekend Update out for a primetime spin once more. Seeing as today’s news is never not in need of incisive comedy, Colin Jost and Michael Che will end their summer breaks early to bring new half-hour Weekend Update episodes to NBC.
SNL has been piecemealing through 2017 with two shows a month, and our first April show is now confirmed to follow Scarlett Johansson. Comedian Louis C.K. will return to SNL for the first April 2017 show, joined by a first-time musical guest.
This coming Saturday will mark Scarlett Johansson’s fifth SNL hosting, enough that you’d think the Ghost in the Shell star had it down by now. Not so, according to her first 2017 promos, as Johansson undergoes rigorous training, while another cast member makes their return.
SNL didn’t quite have its ducks in a row with the announcement that Hidden Figures star Octavia Spencer would lead the first March show; lacking a musical guest to accompany. Now, not only has NBC filled out the March 4 dance card, but so too will Scarlett Johannson make a return appearance the following week.
If Alec Baldwin was going to make a full-time SNL return, it’d make sense that 30 Rock co-star and SNL alum Tracy Morgan might not be far behind. See for yourself, as Morgan returns to his SNL stomping grounds as one of Beyonce’s unborn twins.
It was back in August we first learned that NBC would experiment with a few Snapchat additions to its most viral shows, and you’ve had at least four months to figure out what that means. Nonetheless, SNL is venturing into Snapchat content with its new Boycott series, as cast members try to get away from the Trump brand.
It hasn’t been terribly long since FOX said goodbye to American Idol, what with the whole “reality competition” craze having appreciably cooled since the early 2000s regardless. Still, leave it to NBC to potentially drag Ryan Seacrest back to the stage for a revival season, throwing The Voice into question in the process.
Alec Baldwin’s been a regular presence at SNL this season, but surely his seventeenth official hosting turn is a big deal, right? Well, maybe not, judging by the reigning Trump impersonator’s promos, which see Baldwin revisiting his SNL past.