The 47th season of Saturday Night Live premiered on October 2, 2021, with host Owen Wilson and musical guest Kacey Musgraves, and will conclude on May 21, 2022, with host Natasha Lyonne and musical guest Japanese Breakfast.
Beck Bennett and Lauren Holt had both left the show at the end of the previous season. Bennett had been part of the cast since Season 39, a total of 8 seasons, while Holt had been in for just one season. Chloe Fineman and Bowen Yang, who had been with the cast since Season 45, were both promoted to repertory status. Three new featured players were added: comedic actor and filmmaker Aristotle Athari, impressionist and actor James Austin Johnson, and surrealist comedian Sarah Sherman. Sherman is now the second youngest female cast member in the current cast overall to be born in the 1990s, after former first year cast members Luke Null and Holt.
While credited, Kate McKinnon did not appear in the first seven episodes of the season, as she was filming the Peacock drama streaming limited series Joe vs. Carole. She returned for the December 11, 2021 episode, hosted by Billie Eilish. Similarly, Cecily Strong missed from the January episodes of 2022, due to her starring in the Off-Broadway play The Search for Signs of Inteligent Life in the Universe. Pete Davidson was absent from the thirteenth episode until the twentieth episode due to filming the movie The Home.
Michael Che announced in late March that he would depart the Update desk at the end of the season.[1] In the leadup to the finale, Deadline[2] and Variety[3] reported it would be the final season for Aidy Bryant, Pete Davidson, Kate McKinnon, and Kyle Mooney.
Don Roy King, who had directed the show since the 32nd season, retired after the December 18 episode. He was succeeded by Liz Patrick, a longtime director of The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Her first episode was January 15, 2022.
Additionally, this is the first season to have 21 episodes, since season 44. As the previous two seasons were shortened, due to COVID issues.
Due to a resurgence of the coronavirus, the December 18 episode could not be performed in-person. Due to short notice, it was not possible to pretaped additional material as had been done with the Saturday Night Live at Home episodes. Instead, host Paul Rudd appeared in an empty studio with Kenan Thompson, and Michael Che, and cameos by Tom Hanks and Tina Fey, and they introduced the week's pretape bits alongside repeats of sketches from previous episodes.
The previous season's montage is retained; however, the previously black-and-white clips have their color restored.
Cast
Changes
| Not Returning | Promoted | New |
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Repertory
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Featured
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Episodes
References
| Preceded by: Season 46 |
Season 47 (2021— 2022) |
Followed by: Season 48 |
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