‘Saturday Night Live’ Bringing Back 30-Minute ‘Weekend Update’ Spin-Off This Summer
Saturday Night Liveis the only late night sketch series that is broadcast live on network television, with each episode put together in just a week to ensure that it’s as topical and relevant as possible. This is especially important for the one constant segment that accompanies every episode ofSaturday Night Live, and that’sWeekend Update. Now the news satire segment ofSNLwill get even more time to skewer the headlines.
NBC has ordered four episodes ofSaturday Night Live: Weekend Update, a 30-minute spin-off that has occasionally been ordered to air on Thursdays. Find out more about theSaturday Night Live Weekend Updateseries return after the jump.
Colin JostandMichael Chewill be behind the news desk forSaturday Night Live: Weekend Update, and there will be appearances by other cast members in a sketch that will act as the cold open to the show (just like a regular episode of SNL), as well as the other traditional Weekend Update segments with guest appearances.Saturday Night Live: Weekend Updatefirst got traction as its own series in the fall of 2008, when election season being talked about left and right. At the time,SNLwas enjoying a boost from their political satire thanks to Tina Fey returning to the show as Sarah Palin during the battle for the White House between Senator John McCain (Darrell Hammond) and then-Senator Barack Obama (Fred Armisen). Even Will Ferrell returned as George W. Bush for an appearance.
In 2009, the Weekend Update spin-off returned for just three episodes. Though it was intended to go back for more in early 2010, there were no new episodes that year. The series wouldn’t return until the fall of 2012 with a couple of election specials.
In case you haven’t noticed,Saturday Night Live, and by association Weekend Update, thrives when there’s a lot of political scrutiny in the media. And sinceSaturday Night Livehas been getting plenty of attention due to their mocking of Donald Trump and his presidential administration, there’s no better time to bring back the Weekend Update spin-off.
Since the writers already have their hands full during the regular season, we won’t be seeing the Weekend Update spin-off return to NBC until Thursday,August 10at 9 pm ET. Since that’s just under five months from now, it remains to be seen if Alec Baldwin will still be playing Donald Trump by then, since he recently saidhe didn’t see himself continuingthat impersonation much longer. Only time will tell.
For what it’s worth, we won’t be doing recaps of the Weekend Update episodes aswe do with full episodes ofSaturday Night Live, though we might feature a segment if it proves to be something that absolutely must be seen.
