The 48th season of Saturday Night Live commenced on October 1, 2022, with host Miles Teller and musical guest Kendrick Lamar, and ended a few episodes early on April 15, 2023, with host Ana de Armas and musical guest Karol G, due to the 2023 Writers Guild of America Strike.
Eight cast members from season 47 left the show prior to the season premiere. In the leadup to the previous season's finale, Deadline[1] and Variety[2] reported that four longtime cast members were expected to leave SNL: Kate McKinnon, who had spent eleven seasons on SNL since 2012; Aidy Bryant, who had spent ten seasons on SNL since 2012; Kyle Mooney, who had spent nine seasons on SNL since 2013; and Pete Davidson, who had spent eight seasons on SNL since 2014. Their departures were also announced during the season 47 finale.
On September 1, 2022, a few weeks prior to the start of the 48th season, the departures of Alex Moffat, Chris Redd, Melissa Villaseñor, and first-year featured player Aristotle Athari were announced.[3][4] Moffat and Villaseñor both spent six seasons on SNL since 2016, while Redd spent 5 seasons on SNL since 2017.
Returning cast member Cecily Strong was absent for the first three episodes of the season, as she starred in the one-woman stage play "The Search for Intelligent Life in the Universe."[5] She returned to SNL for the October 29, 2022 episode, then departed several weeks later on the December 17, 2022 episode. Strong spent 11 seasons on SNL since 2012 before her departure, making her the longest-tenured female cast member in the show's history. At the time of her departure, she passed her former castmate Kate McKinnon's record (who did 211 episodes) by several months. This makes her the first cast member to leave mid-season since Seth Meyers in 2014 and the first female cast member to leave mid-season since Amy Poehler in 2008.
Before the season premiere, longtime cast members and Weekend Update co-anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che, who were both head writers since 2017, resigned from their roles after five years. Jost (an SNL writer since 2005), previously served as head writer from 2012 to 2015 and held the role for eight accumulative seasons. Both Jost and Che (an SNL staff writer since 2013), continued as regular writers for this season and beyond.
Although this announcement came with the confirmation that the rest of the cast from the previous season would return, this is Kenan Thompson's 20th season on the show. Thompson joined the show in 2003.
On September 12, 2022, prior to the premiere of this season, executive producer Lorne Michaels called the season a "transition year." In lieu of the mass exodus before the season, Michaels announced that four new cast members were hired:[6] stand-up comedians Marcello Hernandez (the youngest hired cast member at the time at 25, and the eighth cast member born in the 1990s), Molly Kearney (SNL's first non-binary cast member), Michael Longfellow (the ninth cast member to be born in the 1990s), and Devon Walker (the fifteenth African-American male cast member in the show's history, and the first of such to join since 2017).
Michaels had also stated at that time, that the reason all those previous cast members stayed so long, is because of the COVID-19 pandemic, stating that there was nowhere for them to go during the pandemic.[7][8] Earlier in the summer, Bryant and McKinnon separately confirmed that this was the case for themselves, specifically.[9][10]
A few years later in September 2024 (ahead of the show's milestone 50th season), in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Michaels also said that the reason he had been hiring so many stand-ups (including between seasons 46 and 48), is because the pandemic shut donw many of the show's go-to improv spots, such as The Groundlings, Second City, and UCB. Stating that improv comedians weren't auditioning, but stand-ups were.[11]
Andrew Dismukes and Punkie Johnson, who had been cast members since season 46, were both promoted to repertory status this season, while James Austin Johnson and Sarah Sherman, both of whom were joined the cast before season 47, remained as featured players.
The 48th season brought in a new, retro logo, as well as a brand-new opening montage which was filmed at the Chelsea Hotel in New York City.
This season saw the death of longtime production designer Eugene Lee who passed away on February 6, 2023, and had worked on the show for accumulative 43 years, since the show's premiere on October 11, 1975; the exceptions of seasons 6-10 being between 1980 and 1985. [12]
This season ended early, due to the 2023 Writers Guild of America Strike, and canceled episodes planned for May 6, 2023 (hosted by former cast member Pete Davidson with musical guest Lil Uzi Vert), May 13, 2023 (host Kieran Culkin with musical guest Labirinth), and the season finale set for May 20, 2023 (host Jennifer Coolidge with musical guest Foo Fighters).
Cast[]
Changes[]
| Not Returning | Promoted | New |
|---|---|---|
Cecily Strong missed the three episodes from the beginning of the season was not credited in the opening montage for those episodes. Strong returned to SNL for the October 29, 2022 episode, with host and musical guest Jack Harlow, and left after the December 17, 2022 episode, hosted by actor Austin Butler with musical guest Lizzo.
Repertory Players[]
Featured Players[]
Episodes[]
| Episode Number |
Season Number |
Date | Host(s) | Musical Guest(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 931 | 1 | October 1, 2022 | Miles Teller | Kendrick Lamar |
| 932 | 2 | October 8, 2022 | Brendan Gleeson | Willow |
| 933 | 3 | October 15, 2022 | Megan Thee Stallion | |
| 934 | 4 | October 29, 2022 | Jack Harlow | |
| 935 | 5 | November 5, 2022 | Amy Schumer | Steve Lacy |
| 936 | 6 | November 12, 2022 | Dave Chappelle | Black Star |
| 937 | 7 | December 3, 2022 | Keke Palmer | SZA |
| 938 | 8 | December 10, 2022 | Steve Martin & Martin Short | Brandi Carlile |
| 939 | 9 | December 17, 2022 | Austin Butler | Lizzo |
| 940 | 10 | January 21, 2023 | Aubrey Plaza | Sam Smith |
| 941 | 11 | January 28, 2023 | Michael B. Jordan | Lil Baby |
| 942 | 12 | February 4, 2023 | Pedro Pascal | Coldplay |
| 943 | 13 | February 25, 2023 | Woody Harrelson | Jack White |
| 944 | 14 | March 4, 2023 | Travis Kelce | Kelsea Ballerini |
| 945 | 15 | March 11, 2023 | Jenna Ortega | The 1975 |
| 946 | 16 | April 1, 2023 | Quinta Brunson | Lil Yachty |
| 947 | 17 | April 8, 2023 | Molly Shannon | Jonas Brothers |
| 948 | 18 | April 15, 2023 | Ana de Armas | Karol G |
Opening montage and graphics[]
S48
The current intro of SNL
The departures of eight cast members for the 48th season marked a new era and a time of big change for SNL. A new opening title montage and brand graphics were rolled out to help signify a new identity for the show. Unlike the sequence used for seasons 46 and 47, the season 48 one is entirely filmed.
This sequence takes a departure from past opening title sequences in recent history, as this sequence is filmed at the Chelsea Hotel in NYC and the surrounding area, excluding some b-roll shots. Pentagram took a creative decision to unite the cast in an iconic location as New York City got back up and running since the pandemic.[13] Past title sequences (with the exclusion of Season 38) have featured cast members in various distinct locations around NYC. This has been standard since Season 35; the last video-based sequence to feature the cast in a common space was Season 32. Season 46 can be argued as another outlier, as shots were filmed at NBC Studios and its surrounding area, although this was potentially due to pandemic restrictions.
This sequence takes a creative departure from the previous one by utilizing "rapid movements mixed with slow-motion glamor shots" and takes on a "tableau-based approach" by featuring cast members in various tableau-like settings and sequences [14]. A new musical score was also introduced, which reuses a distinct horn lick from the Season 29 score.
References[]
- ↑ ‘SNL’: Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant & Kyle Mooney To Exit Alongside Pete Davidson As Major Cast Shake-Up Set For Season Finale
- ↑ Pete Davidson, Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, Kyle Mooney Expected to Exit ‘SNL’
- ↑ Melissa Villasenor, Alex Moffat, Aristotle Athari to Depart - Variety
- ↑ Chris Redd Latest ‘Saturday Night Live’ Cast Member To Exit – Deadline
- ↑ Cecily Strong Will Miss the First Month of New “SNL” Season Doing Play in Los Angeles
- ↑ ‘SNL’: Lorne Michaels Addresses Cast Changes, Reveals At Least 4 New Stars – Deadline
- ↑ ‘SNL’: Lorne Michaels Addresses Season 48 Cast Changes, Reveals There Will Be At Least Four New Castmembers
- ↑ ‘Saturday Night Live’ Producer Lorne Michaels on the Upcoming ‘Transition’ Year and Plan to Add Four New Castmembers
- ↑ Interview: Kate McKinnon on Saying Good-bye to SNL
- ↑ Why Aidy Bryant Left 'Saturday Night Live' (variety.com)
- ↑ SNL Trio Talk Trump Jokes, 2024 Election Comedy, Lorne Michaels Future
- ↑ Eugene Lee, Set Designer for Broadway and ‘S.N.L.,’ Dies at 83 - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
- ↑ https://www.pentagram.com/work/saturday-night-live-season-48
- ↑ https://jasehueser.com/snl-48/
| Preceded by: Season 47 |
Season 48 (2022— 2023) |
Followed by: Season 49 |
| Seasons | |
|---|---|