‘Saturday Night Live’ is back to tackle a wild election, mark 50 years

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America is in the home stretch of an abbreviated presidential race unlike any other. But after the chaos of the last few months, one thing is certain: “Saturday Night Live” will be on hand to skewer it all.

NBC’s landmark sketch comedy series returns this weekend just in time to satirize the reshuffled fight for the White House. “SNL” alum Maya Rudolph will reprise her Emmy-winning role as Vice President Kamala Harris. “SNL” cast member James Austin Johnson will once again don a red tie to play former President Donald Trump.

The quick-turn election isn’t the only reason this season is high wattage. “SNL” is turning 50, meaning a show that was once synonymous with the energy of the 1970s counterculture is now eligible for an AARP card. It’s a milestone the network plans to commemorate with a three-hour prime-time special on Feb. 16 — a Sunday. (“SNL” and NBC News are both owned by NBCUniversal.)

But first comes Saturday’s season premiere with host Jean Smart, fresh off her third Emmy win for her role on “Hacks,” and musical guest Jelly Roll, who performed during the Emmys’ in memoriam tribute. Nothing is guaranteed, but it’s safe to assume the five-week sprint to Election Day will be a central focus of the episode.

“SNL” has mined comedy gold in presidential politics since it debuted in 1975 and Chevy Chase caricatured President Gerald Ford as a pratfalling klutz. In the decades since, political parodies have been staples of the show, from Dana Carvey as President George H.W. Bush (“Thousand points of light”) to Tina Fey as GOP vice presidential contender Sarah Palin (“I can see Russia from my house!”) during the 2008 election.

“‘SNL’ has always helped us process the absurdities of the week in politics through sketch comedy. It can be a cathartic process for people, so the show plays an important role,” said Jeffrey P. Jones, a professor of entertainment and media studies at the University of Georgia who has written scholarly essays about “SNL” and politics.

Rudolph, speaking to Variety this month for a profile, nodded to the election’s high stakes and Harris’ historic candidacy, saying in part that the role was “bigger than me, and this is about something very important.” She added: “I’m thrilled to be associated with it, and I’m also glad that I’ve played her and everyone’s cool with it. She likes it.”

When it comes to Johnson’s incarnation of Trump, meanwhile, “SNL” creator Lorne Michaels has said viewers should expect a slightly different take on the Republican nominee, who has been embodied on the show by six performers — including Alec Baldwin, who won an Emmy for the role in 2017.

“Trump has morphed. James, who I think is brilliant, played Trump as the sort of diminished Trump,” Michaels told The Hollywood Reporter. “The guy at the back of the hardware store holding court, and that played because it felt relevant. But we are going to have to reinvent it again because, well, you saw the debate.”

Michaels and the “SNL” team have stayed mum on the performers lined up to portray the vice presidential contenders, Democratic Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota and Republican Sen. JD Vance of Ohio. (Fun fact: “The Sixth Sense” star Haley Joel Osment impersonated Vance on a recent episode of ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”)

In the days after Harris picked Walz as her running mate, social media lit up with casting ideas. The most popular: Steve Martin, a 16-time “SNL” host and, like Walz, a man of a certain age with wispy white hair. Martin turned down the part, however, telling The Los Angeles Times: “You need someone who can really nail the guy.”

“SNL” will have plenty of election-season fodder: Harris’ swift ascent after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race; Walz’s public image as a folksy Midwestern dad; Vance’s controversial comments about childless women; the GOP ticket’s baseless claims about immigrants eating pets. The list goes on.

“You have three people who are not as well known — Harris, Walz, Vance — so I think the caricatures on the show will help define who they are in the public imagination,” said Jones, the media professor. “Is the satire going to be brutal or kid-glove? We’ll just have to see.”

In many respects, “SNL” is at a crossroads. The late-night broadcast TV landscape has been upended by the rise of cord-cutting and streaming alternatives. “SNL” may be an institution, but it has to keep an edge in a crowded marketplace for political satire that includes late-night network talk shows, podcasts, YouTube and TikTok.

“SNL” nonetheless continues to exercise outsize influence over popular culture and the entertainment industry. The show still has the power to catapult cast members to national stardom, introducing viewers to fresh talent before they make the jump to movies or high-profile television projects.

The show is so firmly installed in the cultural consciousness that even the behind-the-scenes production of the first episode has received the Hollywood biopic treatment. “Saturday Night,” a new film from director Jason Reitman (“Juno”), chronicles the frantic lead-up to the broadcast of the Oct. 11, 1975, debut.

Michaels has presided over the “SNL” empire since the start (with the exception of a brief stretch in the 1980s), but in recent years he has been trailed by questions about when he might abdicate the throne. He told The Hollywood Reporter he has no immediate intentions to step down.

“Every year there are more and more people that I rely on for other things, but, in the end, you really need someone to say, ‘This is what we’re doing.’ So, I don’t really have an answer; I just know that this is kind of what I do and as long as I can keep doing it, I’ll keep doing it,” said Michaels, who turns 80 in November. “There’s no immediate plan.”

The show’s lineup was shuffled ahead of Season 50. Punkie Johnson, who joined the cast in 2020, left the show; supporting performers Molly Kearney and Chloe Troast exited, too. The producers brought on three new “featured players”: Ashley Padilla, Emil Wakim and Jane Wickline.

The trio of new cast members will all be looking for a breakout sketch in the weeks ahead. Five hosts and musical guests are on the slate: Nate Bargatze and Coldplay (Oct. 5); Ariana Grande and Stevie Nicks (Oct. 12); Michael Keaton and Billie Eilish (Oct. 19); and John Mulaney and Chappell Roan (Nov. 2).

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