| Saturday Night Live | |
|---|---|
| Season 46 | |
| No. of episodes | 20 |
| Release | |
| Original network | NBC |
| Original release | October 3, 2020 (2020-10-3) – May 22, 2021 (2021-5-22) |
| Season chronology | |
← Previous Season 45 Next → Season 47 | |
| List of episodes | |
Theforty-sixth season of theNBC sketch comedy seriesSaturday Night Live premiered on October 3, 2020, during the2020–21 television season with hostChris Rock and musical guestMegan Thee Stallion,[1][2][3] and concluded on May 22, 2021, with hostAnya Taylor-Joy and musical guestLil Nas X. Withthe previous season cut short amid theCOVID-19 pandemic and the show instead airing three remotely produced episodes referred to asSaturday Night Live at Home, the season premiere marked the return toStudio 8H at30 Rockefeller Plaza inNew York City.[1]Lorne Michaels said that the show aimed to have a "limited" in-studio audience, and that they would "work closely with Gov.Cuomo's team."[4]
On September 15, 2020, it was announced that the entire cast fromlast season would be returning, withEgo Nwodim, who had been a featured playersince 2018, being promoted to repertory status, whileChloe Fineman andBowen Yang, both of whom had been hired in 2019 for the previous season, remained as featured players.[5][6]
On September 16, prior to the start of the season,SNL staff writerAndrew Dismukes,Upright Citizens Brigade alumLauren Holt, and stand-up comedianPunkie Johnson were added to the cast as featured players.[4] The same day of Dismukes, Holt, and Johnson's additions to the cast, it was announced thatAlec Baldwin andMaya Rudolph, though not members of the cast, would reprise their respective roles asDonald Trump andKamala Harris,[7] whileJim Carrey would take over impersonatingJoe Biden.[4] Biden had been portrayed byJason Sudeikis while he was vice president and byWoody Harrelson,John Mulaney, and Sudeikis the previous season. On December 19, Carrey announced he would step down from playing Biden, stating it was the original intention that he would play Biden for only six weeks.[8] Current cast memberAlex Moffat succeeded Carrey to portray as Biden during the cold open of the episode hosted byKristen Wiig.[9]
Cecily Strong was absent from the first six episodes of the season due to filming commitments for herApple TV+ seriesSchmigadoon!.Aidy Bryant appeared in the season premiere before taking an extended absence due to filming commitments for herHulu showShrill.[10][11] Both Strong and Bryant were still credited as cast members throughout the season.
This was the final season for longtime cast memberBeck Bennett, who had been on the show since2013, a total of 8 seasons. It was also Lauren Holt's only season on the show.[12]
Repertory players | Featured players |
|
bold denotes "Weekend Update" anchor
Prior to the start of the season, writing supervisorAnna Drezen (who had been a writer on the show since2016) was promoted to co-head writer alongside Michael Che, Colin Jost, and Kent Sublette, making her the first female head writer sinceSarah Schneider.[13] (Drezen had spent the last 1½ year as writing supervisor)
Additionally,Celeste Yim was added to the writing staff.[14]
After the Kristen Wiig-hosted episode, writer Sam Jay left the show (Jay had been a writer for 3½ seasons, starting in2017).[15]
This would also be the final season for longtime writing supervisors Fran Gillespie and Sudi Green (who had been written on the show for since2015), as they both left the show, after six years (they had both also previously spent four years as writing supervisors, starting in2017).[16] However, Green has returned for the show for the first 7 episodes of its50th season.[17]
Fellow writer Gary Richardson would not write for thenext season, but would return inseason 48.[18]
This would also be the final season for Dan Licata and Emma Clark as writers (who both joined the writing staff back in2019, after just two seasons).[16]
| No. overall | No. in season | Host | Musical guest | Original release date | Ratings/ Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 890 | 1 | Chris Rock | Megan Thee Stallion | October 3, 2020 (2020-10-3) | 5.6[20] | |
| ||||||
| 891 | 2 | Bill Burr | Jack White[a] | October 10, 2020 (2020-10-10)[b] | 4.7[20] | |
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| 892 | 3 | Issa Rae | Justin Bieber | October 17, 2020 (2020-10-17) | 4.5[27] | |
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| 893 | 4 | Adele | H.E.R. | October 24, 2020 (2020-10-24) | 5.0[28] | |
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| 894 | 5 | John Mulaney | The Strokes | October 31, 2020 (2020-10-31) | 4.7[29] | |
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| 895 | 6 | Dave Chappelle[c] | Foo Fighters | November 7, 2020 (2020-11-7)[d] | 9.1 million[30] | |
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| 896 | 7 | Jason Bateman | Morgan Wallen | December 5, 2020 (2020-12-5) | 6.1 million[31] | |
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| 897 | 8 | Timothée Chalamet | Bruce Springsteen & theE Street Band | December 12, 2020 (2020-12-12) | 6.7 million[34] | |
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| 898 | 9 | Kristen Wiig | Dua Lipa | December 19, 2020 (2020-12-19) | 6.3 million[34] | |
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| 899 | 10 | John Krasinski | Machine Gun Kelly | January 30, 2021 (2021-1-30) | 4.4[35] | |
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| 900 | 11 | Dan Levy | Phoebe Bridgers | February 6, 2021 (2021-2-6) | 4.2[36] | |
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| 901 | 12 | Regina King | Nathaniel Rateliff | February 13, 2021 (2021-2-13) | 4.1[37] | |
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| 902 | 13 | Regé-Jean Page | Bad Bunny | February 20, 2021 (2021-2-20) | 4.2[38] | |
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| 903 | 14 | Nick Jonas | Nick Jonas | February 27, 2021 (2021-2-27) | 4.1[39] | |
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| 904 | 15 | Maya Rudolph | Jack Harlow | March 27, 2021 (2021-3-27) | 3.6[40] | |
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| 905 | 16 | Daniel Kaluuya | St. Vincent | April 3, 2021 (2021-4-3) | 3.6[41] | |
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| 906 | 17 | Carey Mulligan | Kid Cudi | April 10, 2021 (2021-4-10) | 3.6[41] | |
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| 907 | 18 | Elon Musk | Miley Cyrus | May 8, 2021 (2021-5-8) | 4.7[43] | |
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| 908 | 19 | Keegan-Michael Key | Olivia Rodrigo | May 15, 2021 (2021-5-15) | 3.5[44] | |
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| 909 | 20 | Anya Taylor-Joy | Lil Nas X | May 22, 2021 (2021-5-22) | 3.5[45] | |
| ||||||
| Title | Original release date | Ratings/ Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| "The 2020 SNL Election Special" | November 2, 2020 (2020-11-2) | N/A | |
A special showing of all fan-favorite SNL political sketches. | |||
Michaels also confirmed that Alec Baldwin will be back as Trump, with Maya Rudolph set to once again play Biden's running mate Kamala Harris.