The 46th season of Saturday Night Live commenced on October 3, 2020.
After the string of Saturday Night Live At Home episodes, the season premiere marked a return to studio 8H. The entire cast season 45 cast returned, the first time there were no cast departures since season 41. Featured player Ego Nwodim was promoted to repertory status, and three new cast members were hired as feature players: SNL writer/stand-up comic Andrew Dismukes, UCB alum Lauren Holt, and stand-up comedian Punkie Johnson.
Jim Carrey took over the cameo role of Joe Biden; Woody Harrelson and Jason Sudeikis had intermittently cameoed as Biden for previous episodes, and John Mulaney had protrayed him on the episode he hosted. His performance proved unpopular among fans, however, and he departed the role before the mid-season break. It was announced that six episodes would premiere in a row, a first. The fifth would fall on October 31, making it the first time that a new episode would premiere on Halloween since 1992.
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 and Strong's Schmigadoon) to conflict with SNL's dates. Strong returned to SNL for the December 5, 2020 episode, and Bryant returned for the January 30, 2021 episode.
On October 7th, 2020, it was announced that Morgan Wallen's appearance as musical guest on the October 10th episode 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 December 5.
Cast
Changes
| Promoted | New |
|---|---|
Repertory
Featured
Episodes
| Episode Number |
Season Number |
Date | Host(s) | Musical Guest(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 890 | 1 | October 3, 2020 | Chris Rock | Megan Thee Stallion |
| 891 | 2 | October 10, 2020 | Bill Burr | Jack White |
| 892 | 3 | October 17, 2020 | Issa Rae | Justin Bieber |
| 893 | 4 | October 24, 2020 | Adele | H.E.R. |
| 894 | 5 | October 31, 2020 | John Mulaney | The Strokes |
| 895 | 6 | November 7, 2020 | Dave Chappelle | Foo Fighters |
| 896 | 7 | December 5, 2020 | Jason Bateman | Morgan Wallen |
| 897 | 8 | December 12, 2020 | Timothée Chalamet | Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street Band |
| 898 | 9 | December 19, 2020 | Kristen Wiig | Dua Lipa |
| 899 | 10 | January 30, 2021 | John Krasinski | Machine Gun Kelly |
| 900 | 11 | February 6, 2021 | Dan Levy | Phoebe Bridgers |
| 901 | 12 | February 13, 2021 | Regina King | Nathaniel Rateliff |
| 902 | 13 | February 20, 2021 | Regé-Jean Page | Bad Bunny |
| 903 | 14 | February 27, 2021 | Nick Jonas | |
| 904 | 15 | March 27, 2021 | Maya Rudolph | Jack Harlow |
| 905 | 16 | April 3, 2021 | Daniel Kaluuya | St. Vincent |
| 906 | 17 | April 10, 2021 | Carey Mulligan | Kid Cudi |
References
| Preceded by: Season 45 |
Season 46 (2020— 2021) |
Followed by: Season 47 |
| Seasons | |
|---|---|