Like most programming with a live studio audience, Saturday Night Live recently shuttered production due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The last episode scheduled to air would have featured John Krasinski hosting with Dua Lipa as the musical guest. But according to Deadline, it seems SNL is making a comeback, albeit in a very different and socially distanced form. The show will start airing original content on April 11 at 11:30pm ET as usual. We don’t yet know how long these new episodes will be or what kind of material they’ll include.
We do know the reinvented programming will include Weekend Update. And we’ll see new, as yet unrevealed content from the current SNL cast members. Given the circumstances we’re all in at the moment, all of this will of course be produced remotely. Could we see the individual cast members performing their own stand-up routines in their living rooms? As of right now, we just don’t know. But it seems anything is possible in these very crazy times.
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Weekend Update with Colin Jost and Michael Che should be the easiest segment to produce remotely. Especially since we’ve seen the format working already—as proven by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers. Both of which are produced by Lorne Michaels, SNL’s longtime head honcho. The success of those shows could have contributed to Michaels’ decision to give SNL a proper comeback.
And will there still be a musical guest? Most guests could perform from their own homes. Many of them have been doing that anyway for their fans. They’ve been sharing their in-home concerts via social media. In the case of Radiohead, they’re hosting weekly live concerts for the foreseeable future. We’ll find out just what a physical and social distancing-era SNL looks and sounds like on April 11.
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