Who is Hosting Saturday Night Live Tonight: November 9, 2019

Saturday Night Live needs a week off, so tonight, it’s an SNL repeat hosted by “Fleabag” star Phoebe Waller-Bridge!

It’s a one-week breather for SNL while the cast, crew and writers prepare to bring back new shows starting next week. For this evening’s repeat, SNL EP Lorne Michaels is replaying the 2nd show of the still young SNL – Season 45. Tonight’s host was a great get for Michaels back when this show originally aired on October 5, 2019.

The host is the British producer, writer, creator and star of the BBC series “Fleabag“, which is available on Amazon Video and IFC On Demand, Phoebe Waller-Bridge. “Fleabag” dominated this year’s Primetime Emmy Awards in the comedy categories. It brought home to England, 6 Emmy Award statuettes, including Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series and Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

If you want to know more about this series, “Fleabag” which ruled comedy on Emmy award night, just pay attention to Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s monologue on tonight’s repeat SNL. She discusses her title character from the show and the differences between the real-life Phoebe and “Fleabag.” The host also talks about her other award winning series which she created, “Killing Eve“, which is obviously more on the dramatic side.

Tonight’s SNL rerun is real test of the Saturday Night Live cast and their ability to do English accents. There’s a lot of British inspiration behind tonight’s sketches. Also there’s plenty of sketches where the SNL writers went back to some tried-and-true tropes with new versions of some of SNL‘s favorite sketches.

The SNL – Cold Open on this evening’s encore SNL presentation goes political as usual, but without Alec Baldwin on hand to play to President Trump. The premise is the impeachment inquiry and the opener deals with Veep Mike Pence played by cast member Beck Bennett in a near panic over the situation. Even though Baldwin’s Trump is absent, cast members Aidy Bryant and Kate McKinnon are there to join in the impeachment comedy as Attorney General William Barr and Trump personal attorney and White House blabbermouth Rudy Giuliani respectively.

There’s also a cameo in the opening sketch that you don’t want to miss. The SNL – Cold Open moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and watch SNL from the beginning of the show, you could miss it; to paraphrase this evening’s Saturday Night Live opener.

The first sketch of the night is a game show sketch and it’s one we’ve seen in the past on SNL, called “What’s Wrong With This Picture?“, once again hosted by veteran cast member Kenan Thompson as Elliot Pants. Cast members Aidy Bryant and Kyle Mooney along with host Phoebe Waller-Bridge are the contestants who give the worst possible responses while trying to guess what’s wrong with a drawing. These horrifying answers include things like, “A teacher is explaining the difference between Harvey Weinstein and Aziz Ansari.”

Another sketch that returns tonight and brings the British accents with it, is the History Channel sketch, “The War in Words.” This features cast member Mikey Day writing letters home from the front in World War II and really not getting the answers he hoped for from his wife back in England played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

There’s also a bar room sketch where the ladies of SNL play some tattooed, redneck women all vying for the affections of one particular country boy with a stylish mullet. This sketch isn’t a repeat of an old one, but listen to cast member Cecily Strong’s character. You’ll hear a voice very similar to her “Cathy Anne” character from Weekend Update. I guess now we know where Cathy Anne hangs out when she’s not working on Update.

Other sketches include a bi-racial news team reporting the mid-day news while keeping score of who is committing more crimes in the community, the blacks or the whites? And also a BBC channel sketch about royal romances featuring host Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Abigail, the Duchess of Clerkenwell and her American lover Jimmy Jay Robinson aka Thunderstick played by Kenan Thompson who takes direct inspiration from Rudy Ray Moore better known as Dolemite.

One SNL – Digital Short to watch for tonight on this SNL repeat. It’s called “Love Island” and it’s a parody spot for a British version of the reality show “Temptation Island.” The premise is that it’s the hottest people from the worst towns across the English countryside. The contestants each have a horrible British dialect and besides connecting with each other, they also struggle to just understand each other.

The Weekend Update guys Colin Jost and Michael Che are having a blast on tonight’s SNL news segment. The WU anchor duo go hard after President Trump along with the impeachment inquiry getting underway, the text messages that may be evidence against the President, Trump constantly saying “Quid Pro Quo” and his idea to add an alligator-filled moat along with his imaginary border wall. Trump takes such a verbal beating tonight over his idiocy on Weekend Update, Michael Che finally stops and asks, “Are we sure it’s okay to make fun of this guy?”, meaning that perhaps the President of the United States is too “special” to be joked about.

Other topics covered by Weekend Update this evening include Bernie Sander’s heart attack, plant-based dog food, R. Kelly’s prison visits from his girlfriends, a study about fathers-to-be and drinking, an aloof cat study, pet horse complaints on Staten Island, a billboard displaying porn, and a man suing a batting cages park after he was hit in the boys by a 75 mph fastball.

There’s plenty of recurring characters stopping by the Weekend Update desk on tonight’s SNL rerun. Kate McKinnon starts us off as Presidential candidate Senator Elizabeth Warren talking about her campaign donors and taking the time to call some of them. Then new featured cast member Bowen Yang visits the desk as Chinese trade representative Chen Biao with a gimmick that makes you wonder how Shane Gillis possibly got fired by SNL for doing his Chinese bit. Finally, Mikey Day finishes up this edition of Weekend Update as 110 year old Mort Fellner with the Supercentenarian News and it’s not all good news.

Below we have a promo for tonight’s Saturday Night Live Best Of episode. It’s features host Phoebe Waller-Bridge arriving to go to work on SNL along with her three friends, all named Emmy. It’s a little hard to maneuver around Studio 8-H with arms full of accolades, but the SNL cast pitches in to help out this week’s host.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge hosts a replay of Saturday Night Live with musical guest Taylor Swift, re-airing tonight at 11:30pm et on NBC!

Next week on Saturday, November 16th, SNL is back live and with another host from the U.K. when Harry Styles is both host and musical guest on a brand new episode of Saturday Night Live!

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