(Photo by: NBCUniversal)
Following news of a tentative deal to end the WGA strike, the writers could start returning to work in the next couple of weeks. One of the first shows to return could be Saturday Night Live. The late-night comedy series ended its 48th season three weeks early last May, when the writers strike began.
Viewers could see the sketch comedy series back on NBC with new episodes in as little as two weeks, per Deadline. This means season 49 of SNL could premiere as soon as October 7th or 14th.
There are some challenges, though. One would be the show’s cast. Though the players could return to work on the series per the SAG-AFTRA network code, they could opt to stay off the set until a new deal is reached for the striking actors.
The current cast of the long-running series includes Michael Che, Mikey Day, Andrew Dismukes, Chloe Fineman, Heidi Gardner, Punkie Johnson, Colin Jost, Ego Nwodim, Kenan Thompson, and Bowen Yang with Marcello Hernandez, James Austin Johnson, Molly Kearney, Michael Longfellow, Sarah Sherman, and Devon Walker as featured players.
The second hurdle is selecting hosts for the weekly series. The NBC series would likely look for non-actor celebrities to host the series until the SAG-AFTRA actors strike comes to an end.
What do you think? Are you excited to see the return of Saturday Night Live in the coming months?
How are they going to do this? Can they do comedy skits without actors? Yeah, I know they do “music” segments without any actual musicians 90% of the time anymore, but it’s a little more difficult to lip-sync or autotune comedy.
I agree with Terrence’s comment. Having said that, I will be looking forward to the return of SNL with new episodes. Love the show.
This is dumb. Neither SNL, Lorne Michaels nor NBC shouldn’t even be considering any return until SAG-AFTRA reaches a deal. This **** can wait.