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“Saturday Night Live” returns for 50th season

(Image courtesy of NBC) “SNL” celebrates its 50th season this year.

Aaron Preziosi
Connector Editor

“Saturday Night Live” recently returned marking both its 50th season and year on the air. According to NBC’s official website, the 50th season features three new cast members: Ashley Padilla, Emil Wakim, and Jane Wickline. NBC expects this season to run for 18-22 episodes and says fans should expect sketches like “Weekend Update”, and with 2024-25 being an election year, plenty of political satire. The first episode aired on Sept. 28, featuring Jean Smart as host and Jelly Roll as a musical guest. The episode started strong with a cold open parodying several prominent political figures, starring Maya Rudolph, Jim Gaffigan, Andy Samberg, James Austin Johnson, Bowen Yang, and Dana Carvey as Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, Doug Emhoff, Donald Trump, JD Vance, and Joe Biden respectively. The second episode aired on Oct. 5, featuring Nate Bargatze as host and Coldplay as musical guest.

As usual, more episodes will follow every Saturday night at 11:30 p.m. NBC has secured a lineup of beloved celebrity guests both to host and play every week, consisting of Ariana Grande, Stevie Nicks, Michael Keaton, Billie Eilish, John Mulaney, and Chappell Roan. Keeping with the theme and tradition of political satire, there is also a 2024 election special planned for the night of Nov. 4, 2024, just one night before the election. Whether the special will be a compilation show, like 2020’s special, or a brand-new night of sketches and monologues, like the 2016 special, is yet to be seen.

On the topic of specials, NBC also stated that there will be a “three-hour primetime special” celebrating its 50th anniversary. There will be more information to come, but right now the special is set to cap off the season, airing on Feb. 16 at 8 p.m. NBC continues, saying “you can only imagine what the show has planned for the milestone half-century celebration,” citing guests Paul McCartney and Paul Simon from the “star-studded” 40th anniversary special.

Furthermore, the 50th season has shown promising ratings thus far. An article published by Variety disclosed that the premiere episode “drew 5.3 million viewers in the Nielsen Live+Same Day ratings, the most viewers for an ‘SNL’ season premiere since 2020.” This is certainly a good sign for the series, showing that more people than ever are drawn to the classic late-night comedy show.

While there isn’t a lot of information regarding this season of “Saturday Night Live” yet, it is easy to get excited for. As a show that relies heavily on political satire, an election year is bound to create a lot of interesting sketches and parodies, especially during one as controversial and unique as this one. The prospect of a three-hour primetime special is sure to excite and intrigue  both longtime viewers of the show and followers of the medium across all generations. As an intergenerational staple of America’s late night comedy scene, “SNL” continues to deliver and hasn’t shown any signs of stopping yet.

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