Who is Hosting Saturday Night Live Tonight: September 19, 2020

at
Share This Post

In two weeks, Saturday Night Live returns with new shows, but until then, enjoy tonight’s SNL repeat hosted by former cast member and favorite son, Will Ferrell!

As to be expected during Saturday Night Live‘s summer hiatus, we go months with no new information about the new season, and then Boom! The info starts rushing in like a flash flood of comedy news.

This week we learned that SNL – Season 46 will debut in two weeks on Saturday, October 3rd on NBC. The entire cast is expected to return. Personally, I lost money on Kate McKinnon and Pete “King of Staten Island” Davidson coming back. And fans also learned that there will be a limited audience in Studio 8-H when SNL is back on the air due to Covid safety measures.

We also found out that in addition to the entire cast returning, three new featured players have been added to the cast. This will make Saturday Night Live‘s Season 46 cast, the largest in SNL history. Congratulations to UCB alum Lauren Holt, comedian Punkie Johnson and stand up / SNL writer Andrew Dismukes who now go down in the record books as Saturday Night Live cast members.

There’s also news about the giant comedy icon SNL scored to play Vice-President Joe Biden this upcoming season along with updates on Alec Baldwin’s future as SNL‘s Donald Trump and Maya Rudolph’s return to Saturday Night Live to play Joe Biden’s running-mate and possible future Veep, Kamala Harris. Plus, SNL is doing something different with its scheduling when the new season starts. You can get all the details on this SNL news on the Interrobang in an article by the IBang staff called, “Saturday Night Live: What’s Old and What’s New for the Season 46 Return.”

Be sure to check out this coverage by the IBang of everything coming to SNL this season. You can learn about the backgrounds of all of the new Saturday Night Live players as well as how executive producer Lorne Michaels intends on handling campaign season as we creep closer and closer to Election Day.

While everyone waits for the new SNL season to begin, we still have two more Saturday Night Live repeats to enjoy, including tonight’s replay of the SNL hosted by former cast member Will Ferrell who spent 7 glorious seasons as a fan favorite cast member on Saturday Night Live, from 1995 to 2002. Will was part of a massive overhaul of the SNL cast back in 1994 and ’95, which was meant to jumpstart the show’s popularity which was suffering back in the mid-90’s.

Originally airing on November 23, 2019, this episode of SNL was Will Ferrell’s 5th time hosting Saturday Night Live. However, there wasn’t any real fanfare welcoming Will into Saturday Night Live Five-Timers Club, an honor reserved for those who have hosted SNL at least 5 times. Watch towards the end of the show. You’ll see an SNL Bumper Photo of Will Ferrell in a Five-Timers Club smoking jacket. That was the only mention about Will achieving this honor. Thanks for almost-nothing Saturday Night Live.

The SNL – Cold Open wasn’t exactly business as usual either in tonight’s SNL replay. It begins with Alec Baldwin returning as President Trump who’s trying to sneak out of DC on the Marine One helicopter. However, Trump is ambushed by a throng of reporters (the only time you can use the word “throng” is when talking about reporters) who want to ask Trump about his Impeachment investigation.

In a move that rarely happens, the host (Will Ferrell) appears in the SNL – Cold Open. Will shows up as impeachment witness Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union who testified before Congress to talk about Trump’s misdeeds with the Ukraine. It’s a real cluster-fuck with Baldwin’s Trump and Ferrell’s Sondland talking over each other and not really knowing how to end the sketch. They get out of it quickly with the safe words “Live from New York!! It’s Saturday Night!”

Will Ferrell’s monologue is also a cluster, but this time, it’s meant to be that way. As the former SNL cast member begins his opening commentary, he’s quickly distracted by the angelic face of Canadian-American leading man Ryan Reynolds, star of several action films and romantic comedies. Will is a big R.R. fan and gets so thrown off by the sight of Ryan Reynolds that he eventually needs another former cast member to get him through the monologue. Here’s a clue about the former cast member who saves tonight’s host. He wants to make you pregnant. Also, keep an eye out because you’ll see Ryan Reynolds in the show again a little later.

If you were hoping to see Will Ferrell as George W. Bush again tonight in his return to SNL, you’ll be disappointed. This evening, he crosses the political aisle to play hedge fund manager, philanthropist, and Presidential candidate Tom Steyer in a debate sketch featuring all of the Democrats who ran for the party’s nomination. Other candidates are played by Larry David as Senator Bernie Sanders, Rachel Dratch as Senator Amy Klobuchar, Woody Harrelson as Veep Joe Biden (soon to be replaced by Jim Carrey,) Fred Armisen as Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Maya Rudolph as “America’s cool aunt”, Senator Kamala Harris, a role she says she can’t wait to revive.

Other sketches this evening include Will Ferrell revisiting a sketch premise he’s done before where he’s part of an everyday family shooting a commercial for a pizza joint. He also plays a Native American at the first Thanksgiving, a “munchkin” who takes offense to Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz” and a lounge act ventriloquist whose performance goes really dark. Really really dark. This ventriloquist sketch was really too good to leave till the end of the show.

Some of Will Ferrell’s best work in tonight’s SNL repeat wasn’t done live. He’s the focus in two SNL Shorts. First, he plays a dad who’s humiliated at Thanksgiving dinner by the embarrassing sound his near-empty ketchup bottle made. Don’t worry. Heinz has him covered this year. Then he plays a high school teacher who creepily shows up at house party thrown by two of his students in a music video called “Party Song.”

Weekend Update anchor-team Colin Jost & Michael Che focus on impeachment at the top of their SNL newscast. They also look to make fun of GOP Congressman Devin Nunes and his secret involvement with the Ukraine and the Presidential scandal. Good news. They succeed.

Other stories covered last November in this edition of Weekend Update include former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg apologizing for his “stop and frisk” policy in NYC, Julia Roberts almost being cast as Harriet Tubman in a biopic, a Nazi memorabilia auction, Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s viral dance video, South Dakota’s unfortunate slogan choice to stop its meth problem, vegan M&M’s, scientists developing ultra-black material, and the opening of the new Vagina Museum.

Cast member Alex Moffat returns to the Weekend Update desk as his arrogant character filled with false confidence, “Guy Who Just Bought a Boat.” He’s not alone on this trip to the Weekend Update news desk. He’s brought his best friend and frat bruh, “Guy Who Knows The Owner” who is played by Ryan Reynolds.

And just for fun, stop and realize that Ryan Reynolds (Scarlett Johansson’s ex-husband) is now seated just feet away from Scarlett Johansson’s new fiancé SNL‘s Colin Jost. There’s no on-screen tension, but it’s entertaining to pretend there’s backstage stress and then fill-in-the-blanks with some tense inner-dialogue you make up between two of Scar-Jo’s more attractive real life love-interests.

There’s plenty of promo fun to get you ready for tonight’s Will Ferrell hosted SNL rerun. First up, it’s the Best of Will Ferrell from his 7 seasons on Saturday Night Live. It’s 4 minutes long and that’s because it’s got all the good stuff in it. This promo includes the Spartan Cheerleaders, the Hot Tub Love-ahs, Will Ferrell’s SNL Shorts, Satan, Harry Caray, Bush 43, Will in a Speedo, “More Cowbell” and of course, “Get off the shed!!”

It will make you miss those days of the late 90’s when there were no pandemics killing hundreds of thousands and back when you only got impeached for lying about an Oval Office blow job.

The next promo finds Will Ferrell back in Studio 8-H and digging a hole in the middle of the stage. As legend tells it, Will Ferrell buried a treasure in that spot in 1995 and now he’s back to retrieve it. When he digs up his cash, Will is a little disappointed to find out his investment hasn’t grown at all. It’s up to cast member Beck Bennett to explain that’s not how “investing” works. Mark this occasion down as one of those rare times when Beck Bennett doesn’t play the dumb one in an SNL promo.

In the final set of promos, Will Ferrell is joined by musical guest King Princess and cast member Aidy Bryant who has a distinct odor to her. Will gets caught up on the latest SNL Dish and is not surprised to find out that Kenan Thompson has drama with everyone. The only problem is that Will Ferrell could really do without all the sarcasm this week.

Will Ferrell returns to Saturday Night Live to host tonight’s SNL repeat with musical guest King Princess at 11:30pm et on NBC.

Read more comedy news.

Ernie Tripper
Ernie Tripper