Posted in: NBC, Trailer, TV | Tagged: charli xcx, nbc, paul rudd, saturday night live, snl

Saturday Night Live Goes with Pre-Recorded, "Best Of" Sketches

With an increase in the Omicron variant of COVID-19, NBC took to social media on Saturday with some big changes to tonight's year-ending episode of NBC's Saturday Night Live. With Ghostbusters: Afterlife & The Shrink Next Door star Paul Rudd hosting and Charli XCX serving as the musical guest, it was announced that the show would go without a live audience and have a "limited cast and crew." Well, it turns out there won't be a real show after all, with the word at the top of the show that the cast and the majority of the crew were sent home. The monologue was pre-recorded, with other hosting 5-Timers Steve Martin (with non-5-Timer Martin Short), Tom Hanks, and Tina Fey, along with SNL cast member Kenan Thompson presenting a disappointed Rudd with his 5-Timers jacket (or "4-1/2-Timers"). Instead, the show will consist of sketches filmed during the week along with personal "best of" sketch selections.

And here's a look at the opener we were just discussing:

"Due to the recent spike in the Omicron variant and out of an abundance of caution, there will be no live audience for tonight's taping of "Saturday Night Live" and the show will have limited cast and crew. The show continues to follow all government safety guidelines in addition to a rigorous testing protocol," was the message posted earlier today to announce the changes. "If you have won tickets to this show, you will be receiving more information soon. Thank you for your patience and understanding," was posted shortly after for those ticket winners looking for additional information.

Aidy Bryant, Michael Che, Pete Davidson, Mikey Day, Chloe Fineman, Heidi Gardner, Colin Jost, Kate McKinnon, Alex Moffat, Kyle Mooney, Ego Nwodim, Chris Redd, Cecily Strong, Kenan Thompson, Melissa Villaseñor, and Bowen Yang, along with returning feature players Andrew Dismukes & Punkie Johnson, and new feature players Aristotle Athari (Future Man, All Rise), James Austin Johnson (Silicon Valley) & Sarah Sherman (The Eric Andre Show) make up this season's cast.

With NBC's long-running sketch/variety series Saturday Night Live inching closer to the 50th season mark, it does so as the winner of the 2021 Emmy Award for Variety Sketch Series- its fifth straight win in that category (with the series very close to the triple-digits tally when it comes to the number of Emmys won).

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