And now, a sentence with many acronyms: The WGA and the AMPTP have an interim agreement, which means the WGA strike is over and SNL can return. Got all that? Saturday Night Live will return to NBC for the first time since the writers strike caused the untimely demise of season 48 in April. The show will return on October 14, marking its 49th season. Our first host back is Pete Davidson, who was scheduled to host the episode that got canned due to the strike. He’s had an … eventful time in the meanwhile, so we look forward to a monologue mostly about Staten Island. Plus, there’s musical guest Ice Spice, who, judging by her awards-worthy performance in that Dunkin’ ad, should definitely appear in some sketches. You just know Lorne Michaels is a munch.
Despite the Screen Actors Guild still being on strike, SNL can begin again because the performers are actually on a different contract. Rather than working on the show under a SAG-AFTRA contract, the cast members on SNL work as members of SAG Net Code (Network Television Code), which covers talk and reality performers. So, for the same reason that late-night show hosts can return, SNL performers can get back to work. There is some question as to whether they can do non-live pretaped sketches, but the late-night shows seem to be allowed to do them, so that’s likely not an issue.
Musician Bad Bunny will pull double duty the following week, both hosting and being the musical guest. New face Chloe Troast is joining the cast as a featured player. We are not sure what kind of chemistry Bad Bunny will have with the SNL cast, but we could see a love connection with Sarah Squirm.
This story has been updated with additional information regarding the Hollywood strikes.
