When Saturday Night Live is at its best, the show can feel incredibly fresh as it manages to make several of its stars become extremely famous and beloved. On the other hand, when SNL is missing the mark, it can sometimes feel like the show is something akin to a car wreck. Unfortunately for everyone involved with the sketch comedy show, it seems like several things have gone wrong with the show lately, including the recent cast shakeup, which feels underbaked.
During the season premiere of SNL's 51st season, having KPop Demon Hunters' singing trio EJAE, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami cameo instead of being the musical guest felt like a huge missed opportunity. Weeks later, it yet again felt like the show didn't live up to the moment. As the same season progressed, it felt like the show hit some serious bad luck as the typically topical serious couldn't give Bowen Yang his proper spotlight until a week too late.
Bowen Yang brought back his George Santos impersonation a week too late
After George Santos was elected as the U.S. representative for New York's third congressional district, he became the subject of a lot of controversy. Following reports claiming that Santos had misled the public in a myriad of different ways, the politician became one of the most talked-about political figures in the world. Thankfully for Saturday Night Live fans, the sketch comedy show tapped the always hilarious Bowen Yang to embody Santos. While watching clips of Yang impersonating Santos, it is clear that his casting was a genius move.
Since Santos remained in the spotlight for weeks, that allowed Yang to impersonate him several times. Then, Santos disappeared from the headlines after he was put on trial for fraud and identity theft, found guilty, sentenced to 87 months behind bars, and began serving his time. Santos was then suddenly thrust into the spotlight again when, as an October 2025 CBS News article shows, Donald Trump commuted his sentence, and he was released from prison.
After Santos' sentence was commuted on Friday, Oct. 17, a new Saturday Night Live episode was set to air on Saturday, Oct. 18. Clearly, that perfectly set up the show and Yang to bring his hilarious impersonation back. However, an Us Weekly article reported that on the same day he was supposed to be in the episode, Yang posted an Instagram story stating that he was going to miss that night's SNL episode.
During SNL's next episode, which aired on Saturday, Oct. 25, Yang finally got to bring his Santos impersonation back, and it was funny as always. Still, the show had really missed the moment by then because virtually nobody was talking about Santos' release a week later. These days, the news moves far too fast for a sketch to wait a week and still hit the same. That said, Santos could always do something in the future to get himself back in the spotlight, which would give Yang another chance to meet the moment.