Tag Archives: Weekend Update

‘SNL’ adds comedian Michael Che to co-anchor Weekend Update [Update: New featured player added]

The Weekend Update desk at Saturday Night Live is undergoing changes, again. For SNL‘s upcoming 40th season, Colin Jost will serve as co-anchor with former SNL writer and Daily Show correspondent Michael Che. This marks the first time two men will co-anchor the desk, and Che is the first African American to do so. Outgoing co-anchor Cecily Strong, who worked on the desk with Seth Meyers and then Jost, will remain as a full-time cast member.

“Michael is a strong writer, and he’s really funny,” SNL head honcho Lorne Michaels tells The New York Times. “It struggled to find an identity last season,” he admits. “Because what had come before had been pretty brilliant.”

Keeping Jost and replacing Strong with Che is a move Michaels was confident in making. “This is about a new era, what feels appropriate for now,” he says. “That’s why we did a lot of combinations and tests, and this is kind of where we came out.”

Strong started off a bit shaky but over time she acclimated to the desk. However, she ultimately expressed her desire to pop up in more sketches and this aligned perfectly with Michaels’ vision to add Che as new Weekend Update co-anchor.

And the changes don’t stop here. According to the NYT, Michaels will “probably be making one or two more additions to the cast this season.” So stayed tuned. Previously Michaels booted Brooks Wheelan, John Milhiser, and Nöel Wells; Nasim Pedrad departed the show to star in NBC sitcom Mulaney. Michael Patrick O’Brien has returned to the writer’s room.

SNL premieres September 27 with host Chris Pratt and musical guest Ariana Grande.

Update (9/15): Deadline reports SNL is adding one and only one new featured player to its cast roster for season 40. It’s 20-year-old New York comedian Pete Davidson who was handpicked by Lorne. Davidson performed standup this past April on Jimmy Kimmel Live; get aquainted with his style of humor in this clip.

[Via NYT]

‘SNL’ names Seth Meyers Weekend Update successor

Turns out Cecily Strong won’t be manning the Weekend Update desk alone now that Seth Meyers has signed off Saturday Night Live for Late Night pastures. Replacing Meyers and co-anchoring with Strong is Colin Jost (rhymes with most) who is also SNL‘s head writer. He’s one of the masterminds behind popular Update characters like Drunk Uncle, second-hand news correspondent Anthony Crispino, and Strong’s The Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started a Conversation With at a Party. Jost has big shoes to fill, and it’ll be interesting to see his rapport with Strong in the coming weeks; can they pull off the perfect comedic timing that reigned during Jimmy Fallon and Tina Fey’s co-anchoring tenure?

[Via Deadline]

‘SNL’ season 39 cast locked in (6 new members!), Cecily Strong to co-anchor ‘Weekend Update’

Later this month Saturday Night Live kicks off its 39th season and fans of the late-night sketch comedy show are bracing for a major overhaul in terms of talent. After veterans Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, and Jason Sudeikis moved on from the show last season, SNL creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels was tasked with finding a new crop of potential stars who have the comedic chops to rock Studio 8H.

This August report has been confirmed: Beck Bennett, Kyle Mooney, Noël Wells, John Milhiser, and SNL writer Michael Patrick O’Brien are all being added to the cast. Also confirmed is stand-up comedian Brooks Wheelan, a contributing writer at CollegeHumor. A grand total of six new comics are joining the SNL cast this season, and Lorne Michaels is well aware of the importance of finding the right mix of people to fill his cast.

“You can’t be famous before you’re famous,” he told The New York Times. “It’s one thing to be on a stage in Chicago or L.A.; it’s another thing to be standing in 8H. It’s like standing in Yankee Stadium. They can all play baseball, but this is something different. And the weight of all that was just more palpable to me this summer, more than ever before.”

In addition to confirming the six new cast members, Michaels dropped an even bigger bomb: in only her second year on the show, breakout featured player Cecily Strong is joining Seth Meyers at the Weekend Update desk as co-anchor. Famous for her Weekend Update character “The Girl You Wished You Hadn’t Started a Conversation With at a Party,” Strong will join Meyers at the desk in the upcoming season premiere. Michaels makes it seem like the decision was an easy one: “Cecily, from the first show, was right there,” he said. “She exploded.”

If all goes according to plan, Strong will take over as the sole Weekend Update anchor when Meyers departs SNL to host Late Night when Jimmy Fallon departs his show to run The Tonight Show. Michaels hopes, however, that Meyers will stay in his seat for the entirety of this transition season before relinquishing his title to Strong. Technically Meyers can pull double duty–Late Night only shoots Monday through Thursday leaving Friday and Saturday open for Meyers to write and anchor. As it stands, Meyers is poised to leave SNL in late February when his own late night show takes off.

Elsewhere, last year’s rookie Tim Robinson is stepping off the stage to contribute behind the scenes in the writer’s room and Colin Jost and Rob Klein will share the head writer title, the job formally held by Meyers.

SNL premieres September 29 on NBC with host Tina Fey and musical guest Arcade Fire.

[Via NYT]