Saturday Night Live has revealed that they are coming back with new material amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The show will be produced remotely, but it isn’t clear how executive producer Lorne Michaels, the 17 SNL cast members, and the numerous crew members plan to make that happen under social distancing and shelter-in-place rules in New York City.
According to Deadline, they have confirmed that the sketches from remote locations will include “Weekend Update,” with hosts Michael Che and Colin Jost. Discussions have been underway for a while for that segment to return by itself, just like the network has done with The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers.
‘Saturday Night Live’ returns this weekend with cast in remote locations https://t.co/J26oTZtLhn
— NBC News (@NBCNews) April 11, 2020
However, it appears that they have decided to take things even further with other segments featuring the rest of the cast from their respective homes. Will this new episode have a host? Neither NBC nor Michaels have revealed that detail just yet.
When the coronavirus pandemic hit New York City hard in mid-March, Saturday Night Live was on a scheduled break, and they ended up canceling the March 28th episode that was supposed to feature John Krasinski as the host and Dua Lipa as the musical guest.
Krasinski has been doing his own comedy sketch titled “Some Good News” on YouTube, so it isn’t out of the question that he might take part in the upcoming episode.
Regular episodes of Saturday Night Live usually feature pre-taped segments like digital shorts and comedy music videos, so there is a possibility some of those segments will be part of the remote broadcast from home.
The biggest question about the production is how the different cast members will play off of each other when they aren’t in the same room together. Hints about how they might do that came from a video this week by SNL alums Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig, and Jimmy Fallon during Thursday’s “at home” edition of The Tonight Show.
Those three performed a soap opera parody sketch titled “Longest Day Of Our Lives,” and it was pretty funny while being awkward at the same time. It’s definitely a different experience for fans.
Will the show ever return to its regular weekly production at 30 Rockefeller Center, or will remote episodes be the new normal? The show was supposed to produce five more episodes this season, but just how they will go about that is still up in the air.
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The remote episode of Saturday Night Live airs Saturday, April 11th on NBC.
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