Is Saturday Night Live new tonight, October 21?
By Matt Moore
The weekend is in full swing, and that means Saturday Night Live for late-night TV. So what should SNL fans expect to see tonight on NBC?
Saturday Night Live season 49 premiered last week as Pete Davidson returned to Studio 8H. It was a strong start, boosted by surprise cameos from Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift.
SNL will have a chance to raise the bar once again on Saturday. There will be a brand new episode of Saturday Night Live.
Rapper Bad Bunny will pull double duty as both the host and musical guest. While it will be his first time as the star of the show, Bad Bunny did appear as a musical guest back in 2021.
What to watch for tonight on Saturday Night Live
Any season premiere jitters should be out of the way as we move on to the second episode of season 49. At the same time, the current SNL cast is made up entirely of veterans save for newcomer Chloe Troast. Stars like Kenan Thompson, Ego Nwodim, Bowen Yang, and Mikey Day have proven to never show any rust.
One thing that was missing from last week’s episode of Saturday Night Live was the politics. The cold open featured Pete Davidson reflecting on the violence in Israel and Palestine rather than a political parody. There was no Donald Trump or Joe Biden impression from James Austin Johnson.
It can be a welcomed change of pace when SNL doesn’t lean heavily on politics and instead focuses on pop culture bits and original characters. But the show’s success with political sketches is why they’ve become an expected part of the show.
Given that Jim Jordan failed three times to win Speaker of the House and the GOP continues to suffer from in-fighting, it’s hard to imagine SNL will ignore the situation again. Mikey Day has played Jordan in the past, so he could reprise the role tonight.
Saturday Night Live airs tonight at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC.