After going dark due to the WGA strike, Saturday Night Live is back. Deadline reports that Saturday Night Live season 49 will premiere on October 14th, with former cast-member Pete Davidson hosting.
Pete Davidson will be joined by musical guest Ice Spice for the Saturday Night Live premiere. The following week, October 21st, will be hosted by Bad Bunny, who will also be the musical guest. Now that the WGA strike is over, the writers are free to work on the comedy variety series. Although SAG-AFTRA is still on strike, Saturday Night Live has the full blessing of the union to return. Cast-members and hosts who are members of SAG are free to work on Saturday Night Live as the show (as well as late-night shows such as The Tonight Show, The Late Show, etc) falls under a different contract, the Network Code.
“Our members appearing on Saturday Night Live either as hosts, guests, or cast members are working under the Network Code agreement, which is not a contract we are striking,” SAG-AFTRA said in a statement. “They are not in violation of SAG-AFTRA strike rules, and we support them in fulfilling their contractual obligations.“
Pete Davidson was set to host an episode of the previous season earlier this year with Lil Uzi Vert as the musical guest, but when the WGA strike began, the episode was cancelled.
The Saturday Night Live cast returning for season 49 includes Michael Che, Mikey Day, Andrew Dismukes, Chloe Fineman, Heidi Gardner, Punkie Johnson, Colin Jost, Ego Nwodim, Kenan Thompson, and Bowen Yang. James Austin Johnson and Sarah Sherman, who were featured players last season, have been bumped up to repertory player status. The only new cast-member is Chloe Troast, who was recently named to Just For Laughs’ New Faces of Comedy Class of 2023.
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