Is There a New ‘SNL’ Episode Airing This Week?
We’re deep into the 45th season of “Saturday Night Live” now, and thus far this year the sketch show has not taken a hiatus of more than a week at a time. In the most recent episode of “SNL,” which aired on Dec. 7, we got a cold open sketch which saw Alec Baldwin return as Donald Trump alongside several other celebrity cameos: with Paul Rudd, Jimmy Fallon and James Corden also appearing.
In season 45, Alec Baldwin has made four appearances as Donald Trump thus far — he’s shown up in the last two episodes, as well as in the premiere episode, and in the cold open on October 26, when he shared the stage with Darrell Hammond, the former “SNL” cast member who played Trump on the show for years. Baldwin popped up less often in season 44 than he did in the previous two seasons, when he would appear as Donald Trump in the cold open most weeks. Thus far he’s made one appearance per month in season 45.
This week, on Saturday, December 14, there WILL be a new episode of “SNL.” The episode will be hosted by Scarlett Johansson, with Niall Horan as the musical guest. Johansson, who joined the Five-Timers Club in 2017, will be making her sixth stint as host. Niall Horan, meanwhile, has made three appearances as the musical guest on “SNL” as a member of One Direction, and this will be his first as a solo act. And it’ll be the second time this season that a One Direction alum has appeared, after Harry Styles was both host and musical guest last month. Since it’s a new episode this week, the sketch show will air live coast-to-coast. Meaning it’ll be on at 8:30 on the West Coast.
Also Read: 'SNL': Will Ferrell's Gordon Sondland Shows Up to Ruin Things for Alec Baldwin's Trump (Video)
While season 44 saw “SNL” seemingly tire of doing political commentary late in the season, season 45 has seen it return its politics-heavy form. Every cold open this season has been political, and each has featured some surprise celebrity cameos. Including, perhaps most shockingly, Darrell Hammond’s brief appearance — Hammond was devastated three years ago when it picked Baldwin to play Trump over him. We’ve also seen Lin-Manuel Miranda and Billy Porter feature in one cold open, and Matthew Broderick in another.
The start of the 45th season of “SNL” is not that different from how season 44 began — though later in the season it shied away from the political stuff in favor of general pop culture jokes.
Last year, the Season 44 premiere was eventful for a number of reasons. Matt Damon appeared as Brett Kavanaugh in the cold open. Musical guest Kanye West wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat on stage and giving a pro-Donald Trump speech that didn’t air. Cast member Pete Davidson addressed West’s pro-Trump speech during the “Weekend Update” portion of the Oct. 6 episode the following week.
The political bent did, of course, continue throughout the season. Ahead of the midterm elections, we got a cold open sketch that parodied Fox News’ hysterical coverage of the immigrant caravan ahead of this week’s midterm elections. The sketch saw cast member Kate McKinnon playing “Ingraham Angle” host Laura Ingraham, with guest appearances by Kenan Thompson as right-wing former sheriff David Clarke and Cecily Strong popping up as “Judge” Jeanine Pirro. The three took turns spouting false narratives about the caravan and presenting videos of things like a mob of Black Friday shoppers and crabs scrambling around on a beach as being footage of the caravan.
Also Read: 'SNL': Paul Rudd, Jimmy Fallon and James Corden Bully Alec Baldwin's Trump in Cold Open (Video)
We’ve been surprised to see Robert De Niro pop up fairly regularly as special counsel Robert Mueller — he showed up in two episodes late last season and has returned for several more episodes as Mueller in the past couple months, such as when he bid farewell to Kate McKinnon’s still tremendously impression Jeff Sessions impersonation after Sessions was fired as Attorney General.
Alec Baldwin’s most recent appearance, his sixth time this season portraying Donald Trump, came in a sketch mocking the way the Mueller Report was initially filtered by Attorney General William Barr and Trump himself.
In the previous two seasons of “SNL” you’d have been hard pressed to find many cold open sketches that dodged the political happenings of the week, but the second half of season 44 saw the show delving more into general pop culture stuff and — aside from eternally mocking Trump — even taking more of a neutral stance in its political sketches. But thus far in season 45, the show has not really tried to avoid the big political topics of the week.
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'SNL': Paul Rudd, Jimmy Fallon and James Corden Bully Alec Baldwin's Trump in Cold Open (Video)
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