September 28, 2019 Season 45 episode
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| Episode | 872 |
| Season Episode | 1 |
| Host | Woody Harrelson |
| Musical Guest(s) | Billie Eilish |
| Song(s) performed by Musical Guest(s) |
"Bad Guy" "I Love You" |
| Previous Episode May 18, 2019 (Season 44) |
Next Episode October 5, 2019 |
The 872nd episode and the season premiere of Season 45 of Saturday Night Live premiered on September 28, 2019, hosted by actor Woody Harrelson, star of the NBC's hit classic sitcom Cheers, the animated film, Free Birds, The Hunger Games franchise series, and Zombieland and the sequel Zombieland: Double Tap, as well as the hit films Venom: Let There Be Carnage, White Men Can't Jump, Indecent Proposal, Natural Born Killers, I'll Do Anything, The Cowboy Way, Money Train, The People vs. Larry Flynt, The Sunchaser, Wag the Dog, She Hate Me, North Country, The Big White, Free Jimmy, A Scanner Darkly, The Messenger, The Edge of Seventeen, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, The Grand, Nanking, Semi-Pro, Sleepwalking, Surfer, Dude, Seven Psychopaths, Out of the Furnace, Welcome to Sarajevo, 2012, Defendor, TransSiberian, Palmetto, The Hi-Lo Country, EDtv, Go Further, Scorched, After the Sunset, Rampart, Missouri, Triple 9, Now You See Me 2, The Edge of Seventeen, Lost in London, Wilson, Shock and Awe, Solo: A Star Wars Story, The Highwaymen, Midway, Kate, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Triangle of Sadness, The Man From Toronto, Champions, Suncoast, Fly Me to the Moon, Last Breath and Ella McCay, with musical guest Billie Eilish, an singer-songwriter.
This is Woody Harrelson's 4th time as the host and Billie Eilish made her musical guest debut on SNL.
This marked the first episode with Chloe Fineman and Bowen Yang as cast members.
Although he is credited in the opening montage, longtime cast member Pete Davidson does not appear in the season premiere episode, nor the next one, as he was in Atlanta, Georgia, filming The Suicide Squad.
Woody Harrelson previously hosted SNL on the following dates: On November 18, 1989, the sixth episode of SNL's 15th season, with musical guest David Byrne, on May 16, 1992, the Season 17 finale, with musical guest Vanessa Williams, and on November 15, 2014, the sixth episode of SNL's 40th season, with musical guest Kendrick Lamar (which he returned to host SNL for the 3rd time and his first appearance in 22 years, 5 months, and 30 days).
Woody Harrelson's goodnights speech is "Thanks to Billie Eilish, Alec Baldwin, Liev Schreiber, Larry David, Maya Rudolph, Lorne Michaels, and this amazing cast and crew. And of course, Greta". (Cheers and applause)
Cast[]
Repertory Players[]
- Beck Bennett
- Aidy Bryant
- Michael Che
- Pete Davidson (credited but did not appear)
- Mikey Day
- Heidi Gardner
- Colin Jost
- Kate McKinnon
- Alex Moffat
- Kyle Mooney
- Chris Redd
- Cecily Strong
- Kenan Thompson
- Melissa Villaseñor
Featured Players[]
- Chloe Fineman (First Appearance)
- Ego Nwodim
- Bowen Yang (First Appearance)
- Cameos by Alec Baldwin, Liev Schreiber, Larry David, and Maya Rudolph.
- Musical guest appearance by Billie's brother Finneas O'Connell
Sketches and Musical Performances[]
Cold Open Sketch Pre-recorded Weekend Update Music Performance Other
| Title | Image | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| Donald Trump Impeachment Cold Opening | With the threat of impeachment looming, President Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin) calls those closest (Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, Beck Bennett, Mikey Day, Alex Moffat, Chris Redd, Cecily Strong, Kenan Thompson, and Bowen Yang) to him. First credited appearance of Bowen Yang as a cast member. Cameos by Ray Donovan star Liev Schreiber. | |
| Opening Montage |    |
The opening montage is the same as in the previous season, except there's a logo which its "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE 45" or "SNL 45" title card to celebrate SNL's 45th anniversary. But additionally, with the cast card for longtime cast member Leslie Jones is gone from the intro, (since she left the show prior to this season), Heidi Gardner and Chris Redd are both upgraded to repertory players and first credits for the ones for new cast members Chloe Fineman and Bowen Yang, which they were both added in the montage. Also, in the opening montage, the shot of the couple making out is replaced by a shot of a traffic light that flashes purple (stop), then blue (go) and the background for the host/musical guest clips were now completely white, and there are two versions of the musical guest and host, shown side by side. |
| Fashionista Monologue by Woody Harrelson | Returned to hosting SNL for the fourth time, actor Woody Harrelson talked about becoming a fashionista. Harrelson literally ripped off his classic black tux to unveiled a sleek, satin pajama set custom-made by hipster Harlem-based harberdasher Dapper Dan, and his representative shared the back story with The Hollywood Reporter. | |
| DNC Town Hall | Democratic presidential candidates Beto O’Rourke (Alex Moffat), Andrew Yang (Bowen Yang), Pete Buttigieg (Colin Jost), Elizabeth Warren (Kate McKinnon), Marianne Williamson (Chloe Fineman), Bernie Sanders (Larry David), Joe Biden (Woody Harrelson), Kamala Harris (Maya Rudolph) speak at CNN’s Impeachment Town Hall. With Cecily Strong as Erin Burnett, Mikey Day as Calvin Millett, Ego Nwodim as Denise Reynolds and Melissa Villaseñor as one of the audience members. First appearance of Chloe Fineman as a cast member. | |
| Sun's Out Nevada: Roadside Museum | A family (Woody Harrelson, Aidy Bryant, Mikey Day) tries to set a world record for the World’s Biggest Cheeto. With Kyle Mooney, Cecily Strong, Heidi Gardner and Kenan Thompson. | |
| Billie Eilish performs "Bad Guy" |  |
The performance utilized a rotating set; a botched camera switch revealed the outside of the set. Eilish's performance of "Bad Guy", inspired by a dance performed by Fred Astaire in the 1951 film Royal Wedding, was controversial, with some dancers accused Eilish of "cribbing" |
| Weekend Update with Colin Jost and Michael Che | Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, like Trump calling Joe Biden corrupt and Juul’s CEO stepping down. With guest, Big Papi David Ortiz (Kenan Thompson) stops by to talk about getting shot and hospitals in the Dominican Republic. | |
| Locker Room | A coach (Woody Harrelson) tries to inspire his losing team (Kenan Thompson, Mike Day, Kyle Mooney, and Chris Redd) but keeps getting interrupted by his new wife (Heidi Gardner). With Alex Moffat as the voice of game announcer. | |
| Inside the Beltway |  |
On the political talk show Inside the Beltway, pundits (Woody Harrelson, Kenan Thompson, Aidy Bryant, and Cecily Strong) discuss the impeachment inquiry into President Trump. A crew member was accidentally shown onscreen, causing everyone to break. |
| Downton Abbey | Downton Abbey the first theatrical release movie you have to rent from the library. With Beck Bennett, Aidy Bryant, Mikey Day, Chloe Fineman, Kate McKinnon, Alex Moffat, Cecily Strong and Bowen Yang. | |
| Billie Eilish performs "I Love You" | Eilish was joined by her brother Finneas O'Connell. | |
| Dads | A father (Woody Harrelson), son (Kyle Mooney) and the son's friend (Chris Redd) rap a song about dads. | |
| Apple Picking Ad |  |
Two sisters (Aidy Bryant, Kate McKinnon) advertise their apple farm in upstate New York. With Woody Harrelson, Chris Redd, Melissa Villaseñor and Bowen Yang. The performers broke unusually badly, possibly due to the activities of one of the on-set animals. |
| Goodnights and Closing Credits | Woody Harrelson thanked Billie Eilish, Alec Baldwin, Liev Schreiber, Larry David, Maya Rudolph, Lorne Michaels, the cast and crew and Greta Thunberg, while wearing a t-shirt with her picture on it. Also in the goodnights, Aidy Bryant and Kate McKinnon point to Chloe Fineman and Bowen Yang, as this is their first episode in the cast. |
Trivia[]
- This also marked the first episode for Dan Bulla, Emma Clark, Dan Licata and Jasmine Pierce joining the writing staff on SNL.
- Towards the end of "Inside the Beltway", a stagehand is captured by the camera coming on stage to help Aidy Bryant with a costume change. This causes Bryant and Strong to break character.
- During the goodnights, Harrelson thanks Greta Thunberg, while wearing a t-shirt with her picture on it.
- Neal Brennan and longtime former SNL staff writer Dave McCary guest-wrote this episode.
- When this episode was rebroadcast on August 29, 2020, following the conclusion of Weekend Update, a photograph of actor Chadwick Boseman, who previously hosted SNL, has passed away earlier in the week after battling cancer, was shown in silence.
- Before joining the cast, Bowen Yang had been a writer on the show for the previous season.
- Comedian Shane Gillis was originally supposed to join the cast with this episode, but due to some resurfaced remarks from a podcast of his, he was fired by NBC, before he could appear on the show.[1]
- (September 28, 2019) Woody Harrelson / Billie Eilish episode also features the eighteenth largest age gap in SNL history between an individual Host and Musical Guest.
| Preceded by: May 11, 2019 (Season 44) |
Saturday Night Live episode | Followed by: October 5, 2019 |