Posted in: NBC, Peacock, TV | Tagged: saturday night live, snl

SNL: 5 Pregame Thoughts on Cardi B, Cold Open, Season 51 Return & More

From the Cold Open and a look back at Cardi B's first appearance to a look ahead to when SNL could return, here are our 5 "pregame" thoughts.

With only a few hours to go until NBC's Saturday Night Live kicks things off with host Alexander Skarsgård and musical guest Cardi B, we're back with our SNL Pregame: five random thoughts we wanted to pass along ahead of tonight's final show before the Olympics break. In fact, that's one of the thoughts below – along with how SNL sketches have been getting well-rounded hate, our dream cold open involving Cardi B, a look at some recent social media work that dropped in support of tonight's show, a look back to Cardi B's first run as an SNL musical guest, and more.

(1) SNL: Equal Opportunity Pisser-Offer: It's interesting to keep a watch on social media while SNL is on, to track the real-time reactions to sketches. One thing that we've noticed this season is that the show has had a number of sketches that have been "well-rounded" attacked. We're talking about those sketches that hit so hard, and sometimes a little too close to home for some, that all sides of an issue feel they're being targeted. That's a good thing. Because as much as SNL may wear its beliefs on its metaphorical sleeve (the Trump folks make it too damn easy), the show succeeds when there's a sense that anyone can be a target.

(2) SNL Cold Open Dream: For reasons we detailed on Friday, having Cardi B portray Nicki Minaj, alongside James Austin Johnson's Trump, in a re-enactment of that event from this week would be golden. We can safely say that social media would explode in ways we don't often see on a Saturday night. That's the kind of headline-grabber that would get SNL come serious mainstream media attention, and we can't see how Minaj and Trump's White House wouldn't respond. That said, we also know there are a number of reasons Cardi B might not want to go that route – total respect for that. But we would be lying if we said that the thought of it gets better and better the closer we get to Saturday night.

(3) SNL Season 51 Return Date? After tonight's show, SNL will be taking a break for NBC's massive 2026 Winter Olympics coverage, running from the opening ceremony on Friday, February 6th, to the closing ceremony on Sunday, February 22nd. That means that the earliest we could expect SNL back is February 28th. It will be interesting to see how the rest of the season's calendar plays out and whether we'll get around 20 shows this season.

(4) New SNL Looks: We've got two new SNL promos to pass along. First up, Cardi B and Marcello Hernandez star in a fun behind-the-scenes meet-up that we don't want to spoil. Following that, we have a fuller look at Skarsgård, Cardi B, and SNL star Chloe Fineman while they were filming their Studio 8H promos on Thursday:

(5) Cardi B Nostalgia: Cardi B made her musical guest debut on SNL Season 43 Episode 17 (April 7, 2018), which was hosted by the late actor, writer, and director Chadwick Boseman. Viewers were treated to a medley of "Bodak Yellow" and "Bartier Cardi" for her first set, followed by "Be Careful" for her second set (where she would reveal her pregnancy for the first time). In addition, Cardi B appears in the filmed sketch "Aidy B," with an inspired Aidy Bryant making it clear to her SNL castmates and Boseman that she's not someone to be messed with.

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