Season 46 is the forty-sixth season of Saturday Night Live premiered on October 3, 2020 on NBC, during the 2020–21 television season, hosted by former cast member Chris Rock, with musical guest Megan Thee Stallion, and concluded on May 22, 2021, hosted by actress Anya Taylor-Joy, with musical guest Lil Nas X.
With the previous season cut short amid the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic and the show instead airing three remotely produced episodes referred to as Saturday Night Live at Home, the season premiere marked the return to Studio 8H at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. 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."
The new opening montage was introduced. Like the previous one, it was in black and white and showed the cast both at NBC Studios and around 30 Rockefeller Plaza, with their names appearing in variously colored cursive lettering. Some of the cast members were also shown wearing masks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The theme music from the previous intro carried over to this one (with small arrangement changes towards the beginning) and the host and musical guest portions, in which they are short video clips, remain the same.
Cast Changes[]
On September 15, 2020, it was announced that the entire cast from the last season would be returned, with Ego Nwodim, who had been a featured player since 2018, being promoted to repertory status, while Chloe Fineman and Bowen Yang, both of whom had been hired in 2019 for the previous season, remained as featured players. This also marked the eighth season without any budget cuts to the cast between the premiere of the season and the previous season's finale— there have been no cast departures since Season 41,
On September 16, 2020, prior to the start of the season, SNL staff writer Andrew Dismukes (promoted to the cast from the writers' room and the fifth youngest cast member; as well as the fifth male cast member to be born in the 1990s), UCB alum Lauren Holt (the first female cast member to be born in the 1990s and the sixth youngest female cast member; this would also be Holt's only season in the cast), and stand-up comedian Punkie Johnson (the second Black lesbian cast member, after Danitra Vance in the 1985-86 season and she became the eighth African-American female cast member) are added to the cast as featured players.
The same day of Dismukes, Johnson, and Holt's additions to the cast, it was announced that Alec Baldwin and SNL alum Maya Rudolph would reprise their respective roles as Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, while actor and comedian Jim Carrey took over the impersonating role of Joe Biden, in the lead-up to the November 3, 2020 presidential election. Biden had been impersonated by longtime former cast member Jason Sudeikis, while he was vice president and portrayed by Woody Harrelson, John Mulaney, and Sudeikis in the previous season. His performance proved unpopular among fans, however, and he departed the role before the mid-season break. 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. Then-current cast member Alex Moffat succeeded Carrey as Biden for the December 19, 2020 episode, the ninth episode and the Christmas show, hosted by longtime former cast member Kristen Wiig, with musical guest Dua Lipa.
Longtime cast members Aidy Bryant and Cecily Strong were mostly absent from the season's early episodes, because COVID-related rescheduling caused their other projects (Bryant's Shrill for the third and final season and Strong's Schmigadoon) to conflict with SNL's dates. Both Strong and Bryant were still credited as cast members throughout the season. Strong returned to SNL for the December 5, 2020 episode, hosted by actor Jason Bateman, with musical guest Morgan Wallen and Bryant returned for the January 30, 2021 episode, hosted by actor John Krasinski, with musical guest Machine Gun Kelly.
It was also announced that six episodes would premiere in a row, a first. The fifth would fall on October 31, 2020, making it the first time that a new episode would premiere on Halloween since 1992.
On October 7th, 2020, it was announced that Morgan Wallen's appearance as musical guest on October 10, 2020, the second episode of this season, hosted by stand-up comedian, actor, filmmaker and podcaster Bill Burr was dropped due to many videos surfacing of Wallen partying without a mask and not social distancing; Jack White was rushed in as a replacement. Wallen was instead rescheduled for the December 5, 2020 episode, hosted by actor Jason Bateman.
This would be the final season for longtime cast member Beck Bennett, who had been on the show since 2013, and the only season for Holt, who departed after the season finale.
Cast[]
Changes[]
| Promoted | New |
|---|---|
Repertory Players[]
Featured Players[]
Episodes[]
Specials[]
| Title | Original Air Date | Ratings/Share |
|---|---|---|
| The 2020 SNL Election Special | November 2, 2020 | N/A |
| A special showing of all fan-favorite SNL political sketches. | ||
| Saturday Night Live Thanksgiving | November 25, 2020 | 4.87 |
| A collection of Thanksgiving sketches from the Saturday Night Live is presented. | ||
| Saturday Night Live Christmas | December 16, 2020 | 7.42 |
| A collection of Christmas and December holiday-based sketches from the Saturday Night Live is presented. |
Deaths[]
- Norm Macdonald (September 14, 2021)
Trivia[]
- This also marked the first season to have 20 episodes in it, since Season 32, though this season had only 20 episodes, due to COVID concerns.
Opening Montage[]
References[]
| Preceded by: Season 45 |
Season 46 (2020— 2021) |
Followed by: Season 47 |
| Seasons | |
|---|---|