What will “Saturday Night Live” be like without Kate McKinnon or Chris Redd? Peyton and Eli Manning aren’t too sure.
In the opening sketch of Season 48, the Manning brothers (played by host Miles Teller and Andrew Dismukes) confront the elephant in the room regarding the recent exits of eight “SNL” regulars.
“There were a lot of changes at the show that could be exciting. Let’s see what they spent the entire summer coming up with,” says Teller in his hilarious impression of Peyton.
The football duo do a live analysis of the season premiere – a parody of their “Monday Night Football” ESPN2 “ManningCast” – and groan about the predictable sketches, criticizing repetitive jokes about former President Donald Trump (“Way to mix it up,” Peyton quips) and “desperate” Gen Z references.
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Unfortunately the “stats” aren’t too promising: “14 attempted jokes this episode, only 1 mild laugh and 3 chuckles.” But in an attempt to revive the show’s appeal, the brothers summon Jon Hamm (playing himself) to weigh in on the progress. He not only roasts the show’s mediocrity, but also their choice in host.
“Sometimes they need to bring in a real celebrity when the host isn’t that famous,” says Hamm, next to a disgruntled Teller. “I mean, when they couldn’t get the star of the big summer movie, or your Tom Cruise or Jon Hamm, they had to get the co-star.”
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Saturday’s season premiere marks Teller’s first flight with the sketch comedy show. Along with the “Top Gun” star, four new cast members also made their Studio 8H debut: Marcello Hernandez, Molly Kearney, Michael Longfellow and Devon Walker.
Before May’s finale, Aidy Bryant, Pete Davidson, Kate McKinnon and Kyle Mooney announced their departures – in addition to the involuntary exits of Aristotle Athari, Alex Moffat and Melissa Villaseñor. More recently, USA TODAY learned Chris Redd would also be exiting after five seasons.
Contributing: Erin Jensen
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