'Saturday Night Live!' Is Back, People
Now that the writers strike is over, Saturday Night Live! is preparing its grand return on October 14. To kick things off, they’ve secured an appearance from SNL alumni Pete Davidson. Davidson will host the Season 49 premiere—and Ice Spice will perform as the musical guest.
Variety reports that Davidson was scheduled to host an episode before the strike took place. He'll bring his comedic chops back to the series, which he left in 2022 to pursue his own projects. At the time of his departure, he thanked SNL for giving him a platform to hone his talent. “I started getting taken seriously as a comic,” Davidson said in an interview with CBS Sunday Morning. “It really changed my life.”
Although it seemed like Davidson's time on SNL was the cushiest gig for a burgeoning comedian, his rising popularity soon dominated the news cycle. Stories about who he was dating—from Cazzie David, to Ariana Grande, and Kim Kardashian—would soon be parodied in the show's cold opens. It's mighty awkward when you go from the jokester to the butt of the joke. "It’s your own show, and I’ll be sitting in the back watching the cold open and [it’s] topical political humor or whatever in the culture, and they’re making fun of you and you gotta walk out and do a sketch next and hit your mark,” Davidson recently said on Jon Bernthal’s podcast, Real Ones. "The show just made fun of you, so why are they going to laugh at you? They just dogged you."
We'll see what the material looks like when SNL returns next weekend. At the very least, bet on Pete parodying a member of the Yellowstone family, or Chad meeting the Please Don't Destroy guys.
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