SNL

As we mentioned last time when Sabrina Carpenter hosted “Saturday Night Live,” there’s no substitute for a host who fully throws themselves into “SNL.”

He may not have done double duty as host and musical guest the way Carpenter did, but Miles Teller appeared to fully embrace the challenge of returning to host for a second time (the first was in 2022). The “Top Gun 2: Maverick” star, who’ll next be appearing in the movie “Eternity,” gave a solid performance, appearing in nearly every sketch, including the cold open and two pre-recorded videos.

He first appeared as former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a candidate for New York mayor, in the cold open with help from Ramy Youssef and Shane Gillis as opponents Zohran Mamdani and Curtis Sliwa.

After that, Teller played a hungover game show contestant recovering from Halloween, a hockey player shooting a public service announcement for the unfortunately named Nashville Predators and both twin Property Brothers in a video sketch about the current White House renovation.

Teller was also in a sketch about a TV newsroom that decides to show viewers what its background employees are doing, a Netflix promo for a true crime story about husbands who don’t know where their wives went, one about a police press conference that takes a turn and a show closer about a silly Italian restaurant in Nebraska.

Teller handled it all well; he’s good with accents and earned strong laughs, especially playing two characters at the same time in the “Property Brothers” sketch and as Cuomo in the cold open.

Musical guest Brandi Carlile performed “Church & State” and “Human.”

This week’s cold open was one of the stronger (or at least funnier) political sketches of the season so far, tackling the New York mayoral race. As hosted by Errol Louis (Kenan Thompson), “the least famous person to be impersonated on ‘SNL,’ ” the debate sketch portrayed Cuomo (Teller) as a sexually harassing (“Yadda yadda yadda, honk honk, squeeze squeeze) panderer to Jewish voters; Mamdani (Youssef) as a force-smiling, TikTok-flirting candidate who’s pretty sure he won’t be able to implement his promises; and long-shot candidate Sliwa (Gillis) as an “old-fashioned New York nut” with one traumatic story after another to recount. The biggest surprise may have been Gillis, who as Sliwa recounted stories about being hung by his testicles and getting assaulted by a Times Square Spider-Man. Where was this energy when Gillis hosted “SNL”? As has been the habit on many a cold open, President Trump (James Austin Johnson) interrupts the proceedings to mock the candidates and insert his own commentary. This time, that included singing a song from “Phantom of the Opera” to conclude the sketch.

Teller’s monologue was short and simple, relaying how as a kid who moved around most of his childhood, “SNL” was a constant. He shared a photo of himself and his sisters dressed up as the “Night at the Roxbury” characters from the show and then made up a list of memories from the show, like having his first beer in the audience and falling over after having a few beers. Teller mentioned that he and his wife lost their Palisades home in January’s Los Angeles fires. As such, he made sure to point out the fire exits for the audience.

Best sketch of the night: An extreme White House makeover

The Property Brothers Jonathan and Drew Scott (Teller times two) meet their toughest clients yet: Trump and First Lady Melania Trump (Chloe Fineman) who need help with their current renovation of the White House to make room for a new ballroom. Melania shared her skeleton and withered tree decorations (“They are for Christmas,” she said), and the couple complained that 55,000 square feet and 132 rooms just isn’t enough space. With a budget of “$350 million to infinity” the brothers get to work with the help of park rangers and astronauts working through the government shutdown. But when it comes to getting paid for their work, there’s a problem. “Aren’t you guys from Canada?” the president asks. Then he calls ICE on them.

Also good: Nobody asked for this much transparency in news

On a show called Newspoint, the host (Fineman) and her guest (Thompson) are trying to have a serious news discussion, but because the show has opened up its full newsroom to viewers, all the workers in the background draw attention. Among them are Mikey Day, who awkwardly notices the cameras are on him before spilling a carrier of drinks, Bowen Yang as a worker who gets electrocuted by a copy machine and Teller, who has manga erotica up on his work screen. It’s nice to see some physical comedy from Day in particular and the sketch’s visual gags work nicely.

‘Weekend Update’ winner: George Santos is back, untruthful as ever!

Andrew Dismukes and Ashley Padilla (who should be a full cast member at this point instead of a featured player) played a couple who just made out but are trying to discuss the government shutdown. But it was Yang as chronic liar George Santos who stole “Update” (and some jewels) after Yang missed an opportunity on the last “SNL” episode to play the former representative, whose prison term was commuted by Trump. Santos claimed he finished the New York marathon, which hadn’t happened yet, and kept interrupting his chat with “Update” co-host Colin Jost to take calls with prisoners with a jail window and phone he brought with him. He purported to speak with Ghislaine Maxwell, Luigi Mangione and Sean “Diddy” Combs before revealing that the key to making prison rice pudding is preheating the toilet to 350 degrees. Santos ended the segment by revealing the necklace he stole from the Louvre and insisting that he’d just won the World Series.

Pop star Sabrina Carpenter hosted “Saturday Night Live” for the first time ever, but it sure didn’t feel like it.

Carpenter was the musical guest last year when Jake Gyllenhaal hosted, and at the 50th anniversary special, she performed with Paul Simon and appeared in a sketch. Whether it’s because she’s done the show both as a musician and a comedic performer (her song performances are often a mix of both) or not, Carpenter seems perfectly at ease in Studio 8H, like she’s always been there.

That served her well on an episode that started badly with a retread of a sketch that’s been done a few too many times (keyword: Domingo), and a monologue that, despite Carpenter’s charm, didn’t seem to connect with the audience.

But after that, Carpenter’s quicksilver timing and ease, plus a diverse set of sketches, put the episode over the top. She sounded just like a 12-year-old boy in a sketch about preteens hosting a podcast called “Snack Homies” with President Trump (James Austin Johnson) as a guest, sold a provocative neck pillow in a funny Shop TV sketch, performed a pretaped “Grind Song” with Bowen Yang, and was thrown out of a window as the host of a girlboss seminar. She scared a co-worker (Ashley Padilla, quickly becoming a critical “SNL” utility player) on her birthday and played a singing and dancing washing machine alongside new cast member Veronika Slowikowska.

It also didn’t hurt that Carpenter’s two playful and well-sung musical performances, for “Manchild” and “Nobody’s Son,” were showstoppers. Her love of the show was evident: she performed the former wearing a “Live from New York” T-shirt and panties with “It’s Saturday Night!” written on the back.

The best argument for inviting Sabrina Carpenter back sometime might be that she held the show together with no outside guests or surprise cameos, which hasn’t happened on “SNL” in a long time. The only exception was a short film from “Please Don’t Destroy” writer Martin Herlihy at the end of the show that may have been about racism and Frankenstein’s Monsters (yes, plural).

We’ll keep this short because the less said about this week’s cold open the better. Chloe Fineman and Andrew Dismukes returned as Matthew and Kelsey, a couple that has struggled in the past with trust issues from Kelsey’s frequent trips with her friends that usually end with a passionate affair with a guy named Domingo (Marcello Hernández). This time, they’re celebrating Matthew’s 30th birthday, but for some reason, Kelsey has flown in her girlfriends (including Carpenter) to sing some pop songs in bad karaoke style about a recent weekend they spent in Nashville. This time the songs are modeled after Taylor Swift’s “Fate of Ophelia,” Lady Gaga’s “Abracadabra” and Alex Warren’s “Ordinary Song.” The ladies went to Nashville and of course Domingo is still around. “This is strike six,” Matthew cries haplessly. “Babe, it won’t happen again,” Kelsey promises. Let’s hope so. The Domingo sketches need to be put to rest.

Carpenter’s monologue was largely about dispelling (but not really) the notion that the singer is overly sexualized, or as she described it, a “Horndog popster.” “There’s so much more to me,” she said, “I’m not just horny. I’m also turned on.” She made hay of the controversy over her “Man’s Best Friend” album cover by joking that it was cropped and revealing that Bowen Yang and Martin Short both originally appeared on it, with Yang pulling her up by her hair and Short pushing her away from a buffet line. The monologue started to fizzle when Carpenter went to the audience for some interaction to prove she can have chemistry with anyone or anything, only to come back to the stage for an awkward bit with Kenan Thompson, who said he wanted a Cameo video for his niece. Carpenter has charisma to spare, but the monologue was too disjointed to go anywhere.

Best sketch of the night: Does making plans to see “Plans” also scare you?

Mock horror movie trailers have done well on “SNL” lately and the streak continues with “Plans,” a Blumhouse horror film featuring Ben Marshall and Carpenter as a couple horrified to realize that plans they made back on Fourth of July have suddenly come to fruition with a cousin and her husband. As their terror grows, they remember that the cousin (Sarah Sherman) talks about marathons (“The way I see it, losing toenails is a badge of honor”) and the husband (Dismukes) likes to show off 11-minute YouTube videos. They’re going to end up at a crowded ramen restaurant and then a bad interactive play. For anyone who’s ever regretted saying yes to socializing, this might be your worst nightmare.

Also good: The neck pillow monologues

The Shop TV sketches wouldn’t work so well if Padilla and Mikey Day didn’t do such a good job infusing their characters Bev and Rhett with such practiced professional panic when things go awry, as they’ve done before. Carpenter appears as Virginia Duffy, a crafter who’s designed an ergonomic pillow that looks just like a giant vagina, which comes in different colors. “Why would you bring the pink one?” asks an exasperated Rhett. By the time the faux fur lining is added and Rhett tries on the neck pillow, culminating in an unwanted baby sound effect, Shop TV has done it again. Bonus points for Johnson as Tim Tucker, who appears at the beginning of the sketch with a trick-or-treat pail in the shape of Jesus Christ’s head. “Trick or treat, smell my feet, walk with Christ down the Halloween street,” he chants.

‘Weekend Update’ winner: Did you see ‘Saw’? He did not

New cast member Tommy Brennan discussed moving to New York and growing up in Minnesota, but it was the return of Hernandez’s Movie Guy character, who wants to talk about scary movies but has seen absolutely none of them. “Everybody saw ‘Weapons!’ I have to tell you, I was not one of those people,” he says. Movie Guy expresses that horror movies often tell you what they’re about: with “Scream,” “everbody scream!” With “Smile,” “everybody smile!” How about “Saw?” “Everybody saw! But not me, I did not see.” He goes on to touch on why Stewie from “Family Guy,” “Shrek” and others are also scary (even if he hasn’t seen them). “‘One Missed Call’ … is this a movie about my mother?”

After last week’s worrisome Season 51 debut with Bad Bunny, it seemed like a 50/50 chance on whether the second episode of the season with guest host and beloved “Saturday Night Live” alum Amy Poehler would turn things around. Would the writing feel sharper and less obvious in the hands of a veteran sketch performer?

Poehler, host of the popular podcast “Good Hang,” made all the right moves and may have even overextended herself, appearing in almost every sketch, including the cold open and “Weekend Update” for a joke-off. You could (and should) give Poehler lots of credit for her boundless energy, which lifted weaker sketches, like one about a menopausal mom who goes goth and one where Poehler and Bowen Yang are the composers of the “Severance” opening theme (the joke is that their theme songs always start with a “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”-like rap as their first draft).

But Poehler also benefited from much stronger sketch premises compared to last week’s, from a beautifully performed sketch about a TV psychic, Miss Lycus, who rushes everyone because she has a hard out at 7 p.m., to a spot-on parody of Netflix’s “The Hunting Wives,” with a guest appearance from Poehler’s “Parks & Recreation” co-star Aubrey Plaza. The writing afforded Poehler with big, broad characters, like a CEO giving birth during a meeting with her employees, the matriarch in a family of jerks called The Rudemans and an elderly lawyer who interrupts a TV commercial to one-up other lawyers on the basis of having the most experience.

Poehler also got a little help from some long-time friends and alums, including Tina Fey, appearing as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in the cold open, and Seth Meyers, returning to the “Weekend Update” desk with Poehler and Fey.

Maybe podcasting has allowed Poehler to store some stage energy to burst-fire on “SNL”; she put in a great performance for a solid episode overall.

Musical guests Role Model performed “Sally, When The Wine Runs Out,” with a surprise appearance from Charli XCX as Sally, and “Some Protector.” Before the close, “SNL” memorialized Diane Keaton, whose death was announced Saturday, in a title card. She never hosted “Saturday Night Live” but was portrayed on the show multiple times.

The cold open this week parodied Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi’s contentious meeting this week with the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. Poehler appeared as Bondi and responded to questions from Democratic senators with a series of withering insults she described as “roast-style burns I have on this piece of paper.” After mocking them and avoiding questions about the indictment of James Comey and the Jeffrey Epstein files, Bondi makes way for Noem (Fey, returning to “SNL” cold open politics), who joins in the mocking, telling one senator, “That makes me laugh more than the end of ‘Old Yeller.’ ” After being reminded that a dog gets shot at the end of that film, she responds, “Dogs don’t just get shot. Heroes shoot them.” While the first half of the cold open was shaky, with insults that weren’t landing despite Poehler’s forceful delivery, Fey’s appearance livened things up and ended strong with a call-and-response between Fey and Poehler that made fun of ICE recruitment ads. “Do you take supplements that you bought at a gas station?” Noem asked, “buckle up and slap on some Oakleys, big boy, and welcome to ICE!”

Poehler’s monologue was sweet, wistful and self-deprecating. “I found my first love here,” she said, “being famous.” She went on to describe her life now, saying, “I am a podcaster. If that’s not a recession indicator, I don’t know what is.” She also pointed out that this episode marked the actual 50-year anniversary of “SNL,” which first aired on Oct. 11, 1975. “Just like (host) George Carlin, I am extremely high,” she said. Poehler poked fun at AI actors who’ve been in the news and might want to take her job. “You’ll never be able to write a joke, and I am willing to do full frontal, but nobody’s asked me, OK?” she concluded defiantly.

Best sketch of the night: The thigh squeezes are bigger in Texas, too

It may be a little late to the party (the show came out in July), but this mock trailer for Netflix’s “The Hunting Wives” hits all the right notes with Poehler as frequently topless Margo and Chloe Fineman as Sophie (Malin Ackerman and Brittany Snow, respectively, on the series). The trailer promises that as the women get hornier and drunker, thighs will be squeezed and guns will be drawn. Aubrey Plaza appears as a new wife from California and soon she’s being caressed by all the other women in the cast as they make mimosas. A few great lines from this one: “It’s like ‘Call Me By Your Name’ for women who shop at Bass Pro Shop,” and “Don’t watch it on a plane.”

Also good: Don’t settle for just 100 years of legal experience

Pohler’s character in the Psychic Talk Show sketch was very funny, but the sketch about one-upping lawyers edges it out only because it goes to some extremely weird and dumb places for much longer than needed and incorporates what looked like the entire cast. What starts as a basic personal injury lawyer commercial explaining how the firm has 50 years of combined experience ends up including long-living turtles, Sarah Sherman as a vampire attorney named Dracu-Law, and an ageless tree, Yggdrasil (Yang), who once represented Zeus.

‘Weekend Update’ winner: Someday, that 13-pound baby is going to watch this

On a packed “Weekend Update,” Sherman debuted over-caffeinated Long Islander Rhonda LaCenzo, who rails against New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. And Marcello Hernández and Jane Wickline returned as a seemingly mismatched couple discussing their Halloween plans. But it was an epic joke-off featuring past “Update” anchors Poehler, Fey and Meyers facing off against current ones Colin Jost and Michael Che to make fun of the birth of a nearly 13-pound baby born in Tennessee. “It was so big that he slapped the doctor on his ass!” Poehler began. Some of the better jokes: “The woman zipped around the room like a deflated balloon.” “Did she give birth or did it drive out?” “The baby’s name is AHHHHH!” Poehler rounded out the contest by declaring, “The record was for loosest vagina and the previous held… by me!”

The problem with betting on a sure thing over and over is that eventually your luck will probably run out.

“Saturday Night Live” has bet multiple times on Bad Bunny, an incredibly charismatic performer who was all over the show’s 50th anniversary specials earlier this year and who was an excellent host and musical guest in late 2023.

For the “SNL” 51st season premiere, Bad Bunny’s streak as a perfect go-to personality for the show has ended with an episode that was bafflingly weak, with dated sketches and writing that didn’t cater to the host’s strength as the show’s done in the past. Even appearances from Jon Hamm, “One Battle After Another” actor Benicio del Toro and Huntr/x, the trio of singers from the wildly popular “KPop Demon Hunters,” barely moved the needle on an episode that couldn’t find its footing until “Weekend Update” and then quickly lost momentum again afterward.

The musician is coming off a lengthy residency of concerts in Puerto Rico and was just announced as the 2026 Super Bowl halftime performer. Hosting the premiere should have been a victory lap with a summer’s worth of strong sketches to kick off the season. But it comes at a time of major cast and writer turnover, which couldn’t have helped. Last time he hosted, Bad Bunny was served well by sketches that either let him play himself, or let him speak throughout in Spanish (“The Age of Discovery” being a perfect example).

This time, he had to portray in English an obsessed “Kpop Demon Hunters” fan who happens to be an adult, a contestant on “Jeopardy” who simply can’t form answers into questions, a man who wants to donate sperm to strangers in a restaurant, and a member of a group of Spaniards in 900 A.D., including del Toro, trying to form the rules of their language (but discussed in English, for some reason).

The host fared a little better in two late sketches, one about an amorous principal (Ashley Padilla) disciplining a student (Marcello Hernández), and an homage to “El Chavo del Ocho” that wasn’t very funny, but was at least a pretty accurate recreation of the Mexican sitcom.

We’ve seen Bad Bunny soar on “SNL” when the material is built around his charm and abilities. This time, the writers shoehorned him into multiple sloppy sketches (“Jeopardy,” in particular, felt half-baked) that could have been written for any guest host. He deserved better.

Musical guest Doja Cat performed “AAHH MEN!” and “Gorgeous.” She didn’t appear in any sketches.

In the season’s first cold open, “SNL” relied again on the premise of a sketch getting going — in this case Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (Colin Jost) berating U.S. military generals — and then being interrupted by a President Trump (James Austin Johnson) monologue. Given all the new cast members, Jost was a surprise to carry the first part, in which he complained as Hegseth, “our military is gay as Hell!” Hegseth said the military must be a place where there are “no fug-ups, no fatties, no facial hair, no body hair. Just hot shredded hairless men who are definitely not gay!” When Trump appeared, he said, “‘SNL’ 51 — off to a rough start. Seventeen new cast members and they got the ‘Update’ guy doing the cold open.” His meta commentary included references to the controversial Riyadh Comedy Festival (Jost claimed he wasn’t invited), and a bad joke about Saudi Arabia that drew groans: “We like the Saudis because they like to saw-deez journalists in half.” Mikey Day appeared briefly as FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr and before Trump concluded, he made the “SNL” crew, whom he claimed as Trump voters, promise to “keep an eye on Marcello for me.”

In his monologue, Bad Bunny said the reason he wasn’t serving as musical guest like the last time he hosted was that he needed to rest. He showed footage from one of his concerts, including a shot of Hamm dancing along. Hamm was shown in the audience wearing the same tropical outfit. As for the Super Bowl controversy, the host deftly addressed it by showing a spliced together Fox News clip with hosts saying, “Bad Bunny is my favorite musician and he should be the next president.” Then, in Spanish, he thanked Latino fans in particular who’ve supported him and said that no one can erase their contributions to the United States. “If you didn’t understand what I said, you have four months to learn,” he concluded.

Best sketch of the night: ChatGPTío might take unexpected pictures of you

ChatGPT might be too nice and sycophantic; what if it were more like a Latino uncle who’s honest to a fault with you? In this mock commercial for OpenAI hosted by Chloe Fineman, Hernández and Bad Bunny play AI characters within ChatGPT who give loud advice and sometimes call in the middle of the night to ask about Smash Mouth. How do you make vegan banana bread? “You don’t!” Was Jesus really God? “Yes.” It doesn’t quite work as a concept if you think too much about it, but Hernández makes a meal yet again out of playing a Latino elder with strong opinions.

Also good: Huntr/x keep it ‘Golden’ for a superfan

While it wasn’t the best showcase for Bad Bunny, who struggled with line deliveries, this sketch about a “Kpop Demon Hunters” fan had a surprise appearance by the singers from the animated movie’s soundtrack, who performed part of their hit “Golden” and had some strangely funny dialogue, such as the reveals that one of the brunch companions is on the Epstein list (for flying JetBlue through his island) and another was the writer of the Sydney Sweeney American Eagle Jeans commercial. It also featured Bowen Yang as “Demon Hunters” villain Jinu singing “Soda Pop,” another fun surprise.

‘Weekend Update’ winner: Expect someone to make They K. Rowling shirts after this

New cast member Kam Patterson made his debut in a segment begging “SNL” to let him use the N-word (“I’m a stand-up comedian from Florida, saying that word is what I do!”). But it was Yang in prosthetics as Dobby the House Elf from “Harry Potter” who won the night despite a hilarious wardrobe malfunction — his rag outfit kept coming off at the shoulder. Dobby begins by defending J.K. Rowling’s views on transgender people, but ends up questioning the author’s views and freeing himself in the process with his possession of a They K. Rowling T-shirt. It’s a good thing Yang didn’t leave “SNL” as was rumored because this episode badly needed him.

President Trump has said many things about “Saturday Night Live” over the years. Few of them are favorable, highlighting his disdain for the late-night sketch comedy show, though his previous stints as host would suggest otherwise.

The president hosted the show in 2004 and in 2015, shortly after announcing his first run for president. The decision to have him host “SNL” in 2015 was controversial at the time, but NBC’s top brass defended the move, citing his front-runner status among Republicans and the high ratings it produced. “At the end of the day, he was on the show for 11 minutes and … it wasn’t like the Earth fell off its axis,” said then-NBC Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt during the Television Critics Assn. press tour in 2016. He would later call Trump “toxic” and “demented.”

Trump, meanwhile, has repeatedly said he believes the show is unfunny, lacks talent and is “just a political ad for the Dems” nowadays. The sentiment echoes comments he’s made about late-night talk show hosts Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel and their respective shows, each known for skewering Trump. With Season 51 of “Saturday Night Live” set to begin Saturday, and recent settlements with media outlets and tech companies making headlines — YouTube settled a Trump lawsuit for nearly $25 million Monday over the suspension of his account — a renewed focus will be on the show and how it spoofs the president and his policies.

Colbert’s series was canceled by CBS in July and will conclude its 10-year run next year in May. While CBS cited financial reasons for its decision to end Colbert’s show, the host was a vocal critic of both Trump and CBS’ parent company, Paramount, which had recently settled a lawsuit with Trump just before the Federal Communications Commission approved its merger with Skydance Media (Colbert called the settlement “a big fat bribe”).

Kimmel was benched by ABC in September after the head of the FCC, a Trump appointee, threatened the network over the host’s comments about Charlie Kirk’s suspected killer. Kimmel has since returned to the air, and used his first episode back to defend free speech. Colbert and Kimmel also appeared as guests on each other’s shows Tuesday, expressing mutual support and cracking jokes at Trump’s expense. Trump has also called for NBC to ax its late-night hosts Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon, both of whom are “SNL” alums.

Now, “SNL” could be the next target of the administration’s scrutiny. Trump’s posts on social media have previously aired his disapproval for how the series mocks and satirizes him and his administration, and he has suggested investigating NBC as result.

“Nothing funny about tired Saturday Night Live on Fake News NBC!,” Trump tweeted in February 2019, during his first term in office. “Question is, how do the Networks get away with these total Republican hit jobs without retribution? Likewise for many other shows? Very unfair and should be looked into. This is the real Collusion!”

Donald Trump in 2015, the year NBC cut ties after he made comments about undocumented Mexican immigrants.

(Andrew H. Walker / Getty Images)

Over the years, Trump has had a contentious relationship with the network that once aired “The Apprentice,” the show that made him a reality TV star, and his Miss Universe pageant. In 2015, NBC cut ties with Trump over comments he made about undocumented Mexican immigrants.

“Saturday Night Live,” which celebrated its 50th anniversary earlier this year with multiple specials, has been churning out political parodies for decades, and its comedy has targeted leaders from all political backgrounds.

The first time Trump was portrayed on “SNL” was in 1988 by then-cast member Phil Hartman. Since then, a host of actors and cast members have cycled through with their Trump impressions, with one of the most memorable being Alec Baldwin, who took over from Darrell Hammond in 2016 ahead of the presidential election.

Trump disliked Baldwin’s portrayal, and wrote in 2018 that Baldwin’s “dying mediocre career was saved by his terrible impersonation.” Baldwin won an Emmy for supporting actor in 2017 for playing the president.

The “30 Rock” actor’s stint as Trump on “SNL” lasted through 2020, and he made appearances as Trump even when the show was filming remotely during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of his most memorable moments impersonating the president were in cold opens that mocked the debates between Trump and Hillary Clinton.

Alec Baldwin in 2017 as President-elect Donald J. Trump during a “Saturday Night Live” cold open sketch.

(Will Heath / NBC)

In March 2019, Trump wrote that “SNL” continues “knocking the same person (me), over & over, without so much of a mention of ‘the other side.’” The episode that aired the weekend he wrote that tweet was a rerun. “Like an advertisement without consequences,” he went on.

According to reports from the Daily Beast, Trump took a step beyond airing his grievances over Twitter that time. He reportedly asked advisors and lawyers in early 2019 about what the FCC, the court system, and even the Department of Justice could do to look into “SNL” and other late-night comedy figures who had mocked him. That inquiry did not amount to any actions, according to the outlet.

In 2022, Trump said the show’s ratings were “HUUUGE!” when he hosted, but that they’ve since tapered off. The most recent season of “SNL” was the most-watched in three years, with a season average of more than 8 million viewers.

He went on to write that creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels is “angry and exhausted, the show even more so. It was once good, never great, but now, like the Late Night Losers who have lost their audience but have no idea why, it is over for SNL — A great thing for America!”

Michaels, who rarely gives interviews, reflected on the cancellation of Colbert’s show and what it means for late-night television in an August conversation with Puck News. Michaels said he was “stunned” by CBS’ cancellation of “The Late Show,” but added, “I don’t think any of us are going to ever know” if the decision was political.

“Whatever crimes Trump is committing, he’s doing it in broad daylight,” Michaels went on to say. “There is absolutely nothing that the people who vote for him — or me — don’t know.” He also called Trump a “really powerful media figure” who “knows how to hold an audience.”

“His politics are obviously not my politics, but denouncing [him] doesn’t work,” he added.

While many cold opens and “Weekend Update” segments have been dedicated to skewering the president, often making him the butt of jokes, the cold open in the episode immediately following the 2024 election had a different approach. Trump’s opponent, then-Vice President Kamala Harris, had appeared on an episode just days before the election, but after Trump’s victory, the cast promised they had “been with [him] all along,” adding that they all voted for him and supported him.

“If you’re keeping some sort of list of your enemies, then we should not be on that list,” they said before debuting their new Trump impression, “Hot jacked Trump,” which featured impressionist James Austin Johnson in a muscle tee and a headband.

Johnson began portraying the president on the series in 2021, and Michaels said he will continue in the role for Season 51. His portrayal mirror’s Trump’s speech patterns and his tendency to veer into tangents about pop culture. Since Trump’s inauguration in January, the cold opens have zeroed in on Trump, focusing on his relationship with Elon Musk and his policies.

The “Weekend Update” segment, hosted by Colin Jost and Michael Che, tends to take sharper jabs the president’s policies and comments, as well as other administration officials.

In the Puck interview, Michaels implied the show wasn’t going to back down, and when he was asked whether political comedy will be tougher in the current climate, Michaels said no.

“I don’t think anybody knows what Michael Che’s politics are,” he said, “but they do think he’s funny.”

Brendan Carr, the chairman of the FCC who has been in the headlines for his role in Kimmel’s benching, wrote in 2020 that political satire is one of the “oldest and most important forms of free speech.”

“From Internet memes to late-night comedians, from cartoons to the plays and poems as old as organized government itself — Political Satire circumvents traditional gatekeepers & helps hold those in power accountable,” he continued. “Not surprising that it’s long been targeted for censorship.”

Lonely Island member Jorma Taccone shattered his pelvis and detached his sacrum after a recent fall from a 20-foot ladder at his farmhouse in Connecticut.

The “Saturday Night Live” alum recounted the incident from his hospital bed during Tuesday’s episode of the “Lonely Island & Seth Meyers” podcast.

“There’s a barn, and the back half of the barn has a big white wall. And I was like, ‘Oh, this is great. We can do a big mural,’” the comedian said to his co-hosts Meyers, Akiva Schaffer and Andy Samberg. “The mural would be very, very large at the top. The apex of this barn is like 25 feet.”

Taccone said that he borrowed ladders, including one that his neighbor described as “bad.” As in, “you shouldn’t use this ladder. Like, it doesn’t have a footing thing. And I was like, ‘No, it’s really good.‘”

Taccone was using the ladder to hang lights around the barn to highlight the mural when he fell 20 feet onto his butt.

“I literally have enough time as I’m falling to be like, ‘I’m going to die,’” he said.

The accident was on Aug. 31, his daughter’s fifth birthday, according to Us Weekly. “It wasn’t the coolest way to start the day,” Taccone said.

Two days post-surgery, Taccone said the doctors expect him to walk again within three to six months.

“It’s been a really scary week, and we’re glad that you didn’t hit your head and that you’re not dead,” Schaffer said.

There was only one question left: How long do the hosts have before they can poke fun at the accident?

“I mean, don’t you think it should be instantaneous?” Taccone quipped.

Taccone’s film “Over Your Dead Body,” which he directed, was recently acquired by IFC in May, according to Deadline. The theatrical release date is yet to be determined.

It turns out the amount of objectifying Pete Davidson received from the tabloids took a toll on his “BDE.”

The “Saturday Night Live” alumnus told “The Breakfast Club” on Wednesday that he was “embarrassed” by the way his personal life crowded out his work.

“I brought a lot of pop culture into [SNL], like, I made it sort of like tabloid-y, like trendy thing unintentionally. … No one talked about any work I was doing,” the 31-year-old father-to-be said. “They were just like, ‘Oh, that’s the f— stick.”

The “Bupkis” star began his “SNL” career in 2014, when he was only 20, then spent eight seasons on the late-night sketch comedy show. After leaving in 2022, he came back a year later to host the show.

His dating life dominated the headlines during his time on “SNL.” Davidson dated singer Ariana Grande, actor Kate Beckinsale, model Kaia Gerber, actor Madelyn Cline and reality TV star Kim Kardashian.

The Grande and Kardashian periods attracted the most attention of course, with the singer hinting at Davidson’s alleged “BDE” and the reality mogul saying later that she was up for some of that amid her divorce from Ye — then known as Kanye West. The rapper, by the way, was not pleased with his ex’s rebound entanglement. (BDE is short for “big d— energy.”)

“I don’t want to victimize myself in any way because I’m cool, but the sexualization of me, if that was a girl, you know, [there would] be a march for it,” Davidson said.

He said the attention his track record brought affected his dating life and made him “sad.”

In July, the “King of Staten Island” star revealed that his current girlfriend, British model and actor Elsie Hewitt, is expecting their first child. She posted a series of pictures of the two of them on social media, including a shot of an ultrasound and video of her getting the scan done.

Her caption: “welp now everyone knows we had sex.”

In its landmark 50th season, “Saturday Night Live” had a lot going for it: a huge cast of performers with a diverse toolbox of styles and talents, a fine assortment of musical guests (Chappell Roan! Stevie Nicks! Timothée Chalamet?) and celebratory events across multiple channels for its half-century anniversary. And it had “Lorne” (the biography), of course; creator Lorne Michaels still runs the ship.

But on a week-to-week basis, it was the guest hosts who set the tone and helped make or break a particular episode. A great host, one who is game and enthusiastic and eager to play, such as Paul Mescal or Ariana Grande, could elevate an episode way beyond expectations. An otherwise talented guest host having an off week or who was underserved by the material, like Chris Rock or Mikey Madison, reminds you that nothing is certain with “SNL.” And an outright bad host (see the bottom) can make the 90-minute show seem interminable and out of touch.

Now, let us celebrate the hosts who got it right, brought their A-game, benefited from great sketch writing and support from the cast and crew. Here are the best hosts of Season 50, ranked.

1. Lady Gaga, March 8

Ready to roll: Lady Gaga and Marcello Hernández in the sketch “A Long Goodbye.”

(Will Heath/NBC)

It was one of “SNL’s” weirdest episodes, but perfectly tuned for Gaga, who sang in multiple sketches, appeared in mock ads for L’Oreal easy-run mascara and little red glasses for women of a certain age, served at a Satanic restaurant, and memorably rode her rolling luggage to the airport. Not only was she funny and brilliant in the sketches, but she also gave two of the season’s most dynamic musical performances with “Abracadabra” and “Killah.”

2. Ariana Grande, Oct. 12

“Twist and shout”: Andrew Dismukes, left, Maya Rudolph, Ariana Grande and Andy Samberg in “Castrati.”

(Will Heath/NBC)

It was her third time hosting, but it was somehow still a complete surprise how spectacular Grande was in her run-up to the release of “Wicked.” Perfect impressions of Celine Dion and Jennifer Coolidge and a ridiculously wrong (and very funny) sketch called “Castrati” were among the highlights of a top-to-bottom ace appearance.

3. Jack Black, April 5

“Happiness is a disease”: Jack Black and Michael Longfellow in the “Goth Kid on Vacation” sketch.

(NBC/Holland Rainwater/NBC)

Like Gaga, the star of “A Minecraft Movie” danced and sang multiple times, most notably in a brief My Chemical Romance homage, “Goth Kid on Vacation.” Sometimes good hosting is about bringing lots of energy and commitment; Black went above and beyond on both counts in a wild “Flamin’ Hot Preparation H” commercial.

4. Quinta Brunson, May 3

They found OnlySeniors: Quinta Brunson and Kenan Thompson in the “Life Insurance” sketch.

(NBC/Leanne Diaz/NBC)

Don’t call it recency bias. The “Abbott Elementary” creator and star returned a year after her first-time hosting and once again flexed short-form comedy muscles that made her an online star before TV stardom. Brunson brilliantly played a senior on an OnlyFans-like service, an increasingly punchy insult boxer and a very creative hand gesturer in a follow-up to the classic “Traffic Altercation” sketch.

5. John Mulaney, Nov. 2

John Mulaney in the “Beppo” sketch, about a doomed chimp astronaut.

(Chinaza Ajuonuma/NBC)

It may have been overshadowed by a Kamala Harris appearance right before the 2024 presidential election, but Mulaney’s sixth time as host was just as solid as the rest with a predictably excellent monologue, a silly sketch about a doomed chimp astronaut and another epic Broadway-inspired musical revue about New York City. It’s easy to forget how consistently excellent the “Everybody’s Live” host is at fronting “Saturday Night Live.”

6. Paul Mescal, Dec. 7

Jane Wickline, left, Bowen Yang, Paul Mescal, Michael Longfellow, Mikey Day and Kenan Thompson turn “Gladiator II” into a musical.

(Chinaza Ajuonuma/NBC)

A great hosting debut for the actor, who was the perfect Daddy in a “Please Don’t Destroy” sketch and very funny in a “Gladiator II” musical.

7. Nate Bargatze, Oct. 5

A Founding Father returns: James Austin Johnson, left, Nate Bargatze and Kenan Thompson during the “Washington’s Dream 2” sketch.

(Will Heath/NBC)

Maybe it didn’t hit the dizzying heights of his 2023 hosting debut, but the sophomore appearance from the stand-up had some solid sketches, including another visit with George Washington.

8. Walton Goggins, May 10

This waiter really likes your mom: Sarah Sherman, left, Walton Goggins and Heidi Gardner in the “Mother’s Day Brunch” sketch.

(NBC/Will Heath/NBC)

The “White Lotus” star delighted as a horny Mother’s Day brunch server and a boss with a Squatty Potty in his first time as host.

9. Scarlett Johansson, May 17

“I’m scared of her”: Marcello Hernández, left, Bad Bunny, Scarlett Johansson and Ego Nwodim in the “Couple at the Bar” sketch.

(NBC/Will Heath/NBC)

The season finale host started strong, took off perfectly in an air travel-themed “Please Don’t Destroy” video and was game for a brutal “Weekend Update” joke exchange. But the back half of the episode was so rough even a Marvel superhero couldn’t save it.

10. Jon Hamm, April 12

“What if we took all the fluoride out of the drinking water?”: Jon Hamm as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in the “White Potus” sketch.

(NBC/Holland Rainwater/NBC)

Hamm, hosting for the fourth time, was spot-on with turns as a self-defeating game show contestant and a police officer obsessed with pizza. The other sketches just weren’t as strong this time.

The rest

11. Jean Smart, Sept. 28
12. Bill Burr, Nov. 9
13. Martin Short, Dec. 21
14. Timothée Chalamet (also as a musical guest performing Bob Dylan covers), Jan. 25
15. Charli XCX, Nov. 16
16. Michael Keaton, Oct. 19
17. Dave Chappelle, Jan. 18
18. Mikey Madison, March 29
19. Chris Rock, Dec. 14

Please, never again

A year after a not-great first run as “SNL” host, Shane Gillis, the stand-up comic who was famously fired from the show was invited back. Why? To appeal to anti-woke dudebros who wouldn’t otherwise watch the show? We’re not sure, but Gillis’ range for sketch comedy runs the gamut from low-energy unfunny to medium-low-energy unfunny. The host’s brand also gave the show ostensible permission to push the envelope on stereotypes and gross tropes about race and sex. It even indulged in some slow-witted crudeness about self-fellatio. Two times was plenty; Gillis doesn’t need a third crack at this.

For her seventh time hosting “Saturday Night Live” (the most times ever for a woman, NBC says), actor Scarlett Johansson closed the show’s historic 50th season.

It was a night that didn’t deliver any news on the rumors that Johansson’s husband, Colin Jost of “Weekend Update,” or his co-host Michael Che, would be leaving the show. Instead, the two engaged in their joke exchange ritual, and multiple guest stars showed up in sketches, including Mike Myers, Gina Gershon and Emily Ratajkowski in a video piece, and musical guest Bad Bunny.

Johansson did her usual ace job throughout the show, bringing her crisp delivery to sketches about a New York morning show where puns about hard-news stories land very badly, a Please Don’t Destroy video about a vacation flight to Newark Airport (it also lands badly), and a barroom sketch about two men (Marcello Hernández and Bad Bunny) who commiserate in Spanish about the terrible relationships they’re in with characters played by Johansson and Ego Nwodim.

The trio of sketches were followed by another video chapter in the “Bowen Yang’s Not Gay” series, in which Johansson has an affair with Yang before finding out how many other women he’s having sex with, including Gershon, Ratajkowski and cast members Nwodim and Heidi Gardner.

After a strong “Weekend Update” finale featuring Johansson in the joke exchange, the show took a hard dive with four sketches in a row that just didn’t work. There was a very dated and awkward elevator sketch about Mike Myers running into Kanye West (now Ye, played by Kenan Thompson), one about intimacy coordinators who don’t know how lesbians have sex, a TV interview panel in which female actors get asked more personal questions than their male co-star, and a gross-out season-ender about Victorian women eating disgusting foods including eels and BLTs (bunnies and little turtles).

On top of the bad run of sketches, Johansson was cut off while giving a tribute to Lorne Michaels as the show ended on broadcast and Peacock with no closing credits or cast hugs (the full goodnights were later posted online). That’s no fault of Johansson (who received a bouquet of roses and a kiss from her husband before that goodbye snafu), but it was a sloppy way to end an otherwise strong season of TV featuring a host who’s always proved solid.

Musical guest Bad Bunny, who appeared in the bar and Newark airport sketches, performed “NUEVAYoL” and “PERFuMITO NUEVO” with RaiNao.

The majority of Season 50’s cold opens have leaned on James Austin Johnson’s uncanny President Trump impression, and the finale followed suit. The president’s recent Middle East trip was the topic, with Trump having some friend time with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (Emil Wakim). “We are vibing,” Trump said, “dipping our fingers into various goops and spreads,” although he says he ended up eating at a mobile McDonald’s set up for him nearby. Trump addressed the $400-million plane he wants to accept from Qatar (“It’s a pre-bribe”), saying he prefers it to flying an American plane. “No thanks, sonny. Have you seen what’s going on … screen is blank. Newark!” Trump narrated himself breaking the fourth wall by going out into the audience and commenting on the attractiveness of women in the front rows and promised audiences they wouldn’t forget him while “SNL” goes on summer hiatus. “I’m everywhere, even in your dreams, like the late, great Freddy Krueger. See you in the fall if we still have a country, right? It’s a coin toss.”

In her monologue, Johansson led the cast in a song with lyrics about the show set to the tune of Billy Joel’s “Piano Man.” “Sing us a song, it’s your monologue / sing us a song tonight. / ‘Cause we’ve made 50 years of great memories / every Saturday Night.” At one point it looked like Joel himself might join in when Johansson announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, Billy Joel… wrote this song!” The host took audience questions while still singing and jokes were made about a surprised Sarah Sherman finding out she’s leaving the show (it was a joke). The cast (with Jost and Che absent) concluded the song with, “The 50th season is through / it lasted forever / we did it together / and we got to spend it with you.”

Best sketch of the night: Let’s go home for some soup made from cow feet

Two men (Hernandez and Bad Bunny) on dates at a bar with women they don’t particularly want to be with (Nwodim and Johansson) get into a fight at their girlfriends’ urging, but instead they tell each other in Spanish about their problems and become friends. The two realize they’re both attracted to volatile relationships and will probably end up back in bed with the women they should break up with. The subtitles are on point and the attempts by the girlfriends to chime in with Spanish (“Nipple crazy cafeteria!”) also work nicely. For some reason, a couple of men (Andrew Dismukes and Johnson) sit at another table and serve as the sketch’s Greek chorus.

Also good: ‘Is something going on at Newark?’

The Please Don’t Destroy boys are visited by Johansson, who asks why they’re so down. “Are you sad the season’s over and you only did like two videos?” she asks. The actor invites them to fly first class with her and a Lonely Island-style rap video is interspersed with the reality of the situation: They’re on a very bad flight to Newark airport, which has been having some problems. There are some great visual jokes like a prayer symbol on the overhead panel and a Microsoft blue screen of death on the TV panels. But then Bad Bunny shows up as an air traffic controller who helps save the day all alone and on his first day at work. It might say something that the two best sketches this week featured Johansson as well as Bad Bunny; he didn’t get a chance to host this season but did a great job in 2023.

‘Weekend Update’ winner: Did Lorne Michaels know about this?

Miss Eggy (Nwodim) returned with another fire monologue similar to the one from last month, but it was the traditional joke exchange, in which Jost and Che force each other to read racist and/or embarrassing material that is taken to new heights (lows?) each time. Jost was forced to tell the show’s producer, “Retire, bitch, let me run the show,” while Che was given the line, “I haven’t been that excited since I saw a white woman drinking unattended.” Jost had to ridicule rap feud master Kendrick Lamar and with Jost’s wife sitting next to him, Che was forced to apologize and say about his time on the show, “I’ve told thousands of jokes and gotten dozens of laughs,” and of Jost, “I love you.” But it was Jost who got the worst of it, getting tricked into saying the name Nick Kerr, son of Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr, and applying lipstick to tell Michaels, “I’ll do anything to run this show.” If this is the last time we see Jost and Che as “Update” hosts, at least we’ll know they left no depths unplumbed.