Season 41 of Saturday Night Live premiered on October 3, 2015, during the 2015–2016 television season. The season premiered on October 3, 2015, with host & musical guest Miley Cyrus and concluded on May 21, 2016, hosted by longtime former cast member Fred Armisen, with musical guest Courtney Barnett.
After two consecutive seasons with higher-than-average levels of cast turnover, for the first time there were no major changes occurred prior to this season. The entire cast from the previous season returned: Beck Bennett, Colin Jost, Kyle Mooney, and Sasheer Zamata were upgraded to repertory status,[1] while Michael Che, Pete Davidson and Leslie Jones remained as featured players. This marked the seventh season without any cuts to the cast between the premiere of the season and its previous season's finale— there have been no cast departures since Season 36.
Prior to the start of the season, comedian Jon Rudnitsky[2] of the Groundlings, joined the cast as a featured player.
Announcer and longtime former cast-member Darrell Hammond appeared in several episodes. After then-current cast member Taran Killam played Donald Trump in the season premiere, Hammond played him for the remainder of the year, as well as playing former President Bill Clinton in three episodes.
This would be the final season for longtime cast members Taran Killam and Jay Pharoah, who had both been on the show since 2010, and the only season for Rudnitsky.[3]
Five well-known writers left the show before the start of the season: Nick Rutherford, Natasha Rothwell, Alison Rich, Claire Mulaney, and former season 39 featured player Mike O'Brien;[4] O'Brien stated he would continue contributing the "Mike O'Brien Production" short films he had made for the previous season.[5]
This is the last season with more than one writing supervisor.
Cast[]
Changes[]
Added:
Upgraded To Repertory Status:
Repertory Players[]
Featured Players[]
Episodes[]
Following the death of Prince on April 21st, a scheduled repeat of the April 2nd Peter Dinklage episode, due to run on April 23rd, was pulled and replaced by SNL Goodnight Sweet Prince. (The April 2nd episode had been advertised for the following week during the April 16 live broadcast.)
Trivia[]
- The season premiere featured a cameo appearance by presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, in a sketch called "Bar Talk". Kate McKinnon appeared in the sketch as Clinton, while Clinton portrayed a bartender named Val. Also, Darrell Hammond reprised his long-running impression role as Bill Clinton for the sketch.
- The third episode, hosted by longtime former cast member Tracy Morgan, was the comedian's first large comedy appearance since suffering head injuries from a near fatal car crash.
- In the cold open, parodying the Democratic primary debate, Alec Baldwin appeared as Jim Webb. an at-the-time candidate. Larry David appeared as Bernie Sanders. McKinnon reprised her role as Hillary Clinton, while Jon Rudnitsky, Taran Killam, and Kyle Mooney portrayed Anderson Cooper, Martin O'Malley, and Lincoln Chafee, respetcively.
- In the monologue, Morgan appeared alongside former 30 Rock castmates Tina Fey, Jane Krakowski, and Jack McBrayer, as well as Baldwin.
- Tina Fey also appeared as a correspondent during Weekend Update, her first appearance at the desk since the departure of long-running anchor and friend Seth Meyers.
- The announcement of Donald Trump returning to host for the 2nd time on the fourth episode drew controversy for several reasons:
- Hispanic and Latino organizations called for Trump to be removed as host due to controversial comments he had made regarding immigration. An online petition was formed requesting his removal.
- Trump's hosting was filled with the Federal Communications Commission in regard to the equal-time-rule. Although no candidate has ever requested an appearance on Saturday Night Live to due to equal-time concerns were raised over whether SNL qualified for an exception to the rule as a live entertainment program.
- After the episode with Donald Trump hosting was aired, it quickly drew criticism for not being very humorous, largely because of Trump being cautious about offending voters in Iowa.
- Also, Donald Trump came back to host for the first time in 11 years for the second time. The last time he hosted on April 3, 2004, the Season 29's sixteenth episode, with musical guest Toots & the Maytals.
- The Elizabeth Banks episode featured no comedic cold open; instead, Cecily Strong issued a solemn address to the city of Paris, as the episode aired the day after the November 2015 Paris attacks, offering condolences in English and French.
- Tina Fey and Amy Poehler co-hosted the season's December 19, 2015 episode, marking the first time an episode has featured multiple hosts since 2004 (the Season 29's January 17, 2004 episode hosted by Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson), as well as the first time two female cast members have hosted, and the first time since Season 12's Christmas episode hosted by Chevy Chase, Steve Martin and Martin Short that two former cast members have hosted.
- Larry David's hosting on February 6, 2016, marks the first time a cast member from the early 1980s sketch show Fridays hosts Saturday Night Live, as well as the first time since Season 26 that a former SNL writer who was never a cast member has hosted (Conan O'Brien was an SNL writer from 1988-1991 and hosted on March 10, 2001), with musical guest Don Henley.
- Following the death of Prince (who had been a musical guest on the show in 1981, 2006, and 2014 and performed during SNL's 15th anniversary special) in April 2016, a planned rerun of the episode hosted by Peter Dinklage was replaced with a retrospective hosted by longtime former cast member Jimmy Fallon called Goodnight, Sweet Prince, showing Prince's musical performances including a never-before-seen-on-TV one from the show's 40th Anniversary Special and three The Prince Show sketches: one from the Season 30's October 9, 2004 episode with Queen Latifah as host and musical guest, another from the Season 31 episode hosted by Steve Martin and Prince returning as musical guest for the first time since the 15th anniversary special in 1989, and one from the Season 32 episode hosted by actor Shia LaBeouf.
- Fred Armisen is now the latest longtime former SNL cast member to host SNL for the first time (he is the 33rd former cast member to host), and it's the fourth time a former SNL cast member has hosted a season finale, the others being Dan Aykroyd, Will Ferrell and Andy Samberg.
References[]
- ↑ ‘Saturday Night Live’ Promotes Kyle Mooney to Repertory Player for Season 41
- ↑ Saturday Night Live Makes Just One New Hire for the Upcoming Season
- ↑ Taran Killam, Jay Pharoah Out at ‘Saturday Night Live’
- ↑ SNL writers shuffle: Mike O'Brien and four others leave; six newcomers added
- ↑ Tweet by @snltrivia retweeted by O'Brien
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| Preceded by: Season 40 |
Season 41 (2015— 2016) |
Followed by: Season 42 |
| Seasons | |
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