Margot Robbie hosts Saturday Night Live on October 1st with musical guest The Weeknd.
The forty-second season of the NBC comedy series Saturday Night Live will will see a reduction of ads by 30%, removing two commercial breaks per episode in order to increase episode content. Prior to the start of the season, Taran Killam, Jay Pharoah (both cast members since 2010), and Jon Rudnitsky (a cast member since 2015) left the cast. Killam, despite having signed a seven-year contract that would have taken him to the end of season 42, was dropped from the cast in part due to issues concerning his work directing the film Why We’re Killing Gunther, which would have limited his time on SNL.
To fill the absence caused by these departures, the show promoted writer and Maya & Marty featured performer Mikey Day to the cast, and hired Chicago improviser Alex Moffat and impressionist and stand-up comedian Melissa Villaseñor. While it was initially reported that Chicago improviser Chris Redd, best known for his role in Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, would also be joining the cast, this information was later proven to be incorrect.
Featured players Michael Che, Pete Davidson, and Leslie Jones were all upgraded to repertory status. On September 28th, SNL announced that Alec Baldwin would inherit its Trump mantle in the upcoming season.
