You sure can say that again
If at first you do succeed, duplicate, duplicate, duplicate. Such is TV, a business in which three Chicago Fire spinoffs, two NCIS spinoffs and one Criminal Minds spinoff — plus all the originals — currently fill the prime-time hours.
Coming up, we’ll see a prequel to CBS’s much-watched ode to geekery The Big Bang Theory. The network announced this week that Young Sheldon, centred on a kiddie version of Jim Parsons’s character Sheldon Cooper, will air in the 2017-18 broadcast season.
But before that, Saturday Night Live will throw into the fray a series based on its Weekend Update segment. The special prime-time edition will start its news ticker this summer, when its parent series will be catching some muchneeded rest but when viewers will still want to stay up and play with the ever-more-unbelievable stream of current events.
Weekend Update’s anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che will be the face of the summer version, which debuts on Aug. 10 and will air four half-hour episodes. Other SNL cast members will drop in for special correspondent spots as well.
Makes sense. This season of SNL, the show’s 42nd, has been drawing ratings not seen in 22 years, since the 1994-95 season with Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, Kevin Nealon and Mike Myers.
“SNL is having its best season in a quarter of a century — how many shows can say that?! — so we didn’t want them to take the summer off,” said NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt.
Alec Baldwin guest-starring as U.S. President Donald Trump and Melissa McCarthy popping up as White House press secretary Sean Spicer are big draws, but the regular cast members have been turning out stellar impressions, too. Witness a shirtless Beck Bennett as Russian President Vladimir Putin and shape-shifter Kate McKinnon as Kellyanne Conway, Hillary Clinton and Jeff Sessions.
Incidentally, show regular Sasheer Zamata recently told The Daily Beast that despite people speculating that SNL is trying to annoy Trump by casting women to play the men in his orbit, that’s not the truth.
“When Melissa (McCarthy) came on, she was cast because she’s an awesome performer. It was like, ‘Oh, wow, their faces kind of look alike and she will kill it.’ And Kate (McKinnon) can play anybody, and she’s played men before, but I don’t think it’s ever been a thing to insult the person,” she said.
SNL has a history of capitalizing on periods of jaw-dropping political unrest. The series previously aired Thursday-night versions of Weekend Update in 2008, 2009 and 2012. The incongruously named Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday has featured Tina Fey rolling out her reliable impression of Sarah Palin, Amy Poehler returning to the Weekend Update desk alongside Seth Meyers and Will Ferrell making hay of George W. Bush.
After a couple of so-so weeks with new episodes — no offence to hosts Octavia Spencer and Scarlett Johansson — SNL will take some time off. This week’s instalment is a repeat of Casey Affleck’s Dec. 17 hosting gig.
Keep an eye out for Baldwin-asTrump and a standout turn from McKinnon as Clinton — she riffs on Andrew Lincoln’s wordless cue card pitch from Love Actually, but communicates with a conflicted electoral voter played by Cecily Strong. Chance The Rapper is the musical guest.
The show’s next new episode will air April 8, with Louis C.K. returning to host after the April 4 debut of his Netflix standup comedy special. The Chainsmokers, whose earworm Closer has been burrowing into the public consciousness for over a year, will perform.