Well, there's some big changes afoot for the 40th season premiere of Saturday Night Live in two weeks. But the Update news is the most surprising, although welcome (really any changes would be at this point). Lorne Michaels has apparently agreed with the criticism that Weekend Update wasn't solidified with Colin Jost and Cecily Strong as anchors, but he's responded to that by getting rid of Cecily and hiring comedian Michael Che (currently a correspondent on The Daily Show) to co-anchor the desk instead. Frankly, even though neither of them were great, Colin Jost in that position made Cecily look fantastic, so I can't believe they'd jettison her before him, unless that's what she wanted, since she's still a full time cast member and perhaps it's too hard to do both the news and sketches (although Jimmy Fallon did it). I'm totally unfamiliar with Che, since I stopped watching The Daily Show regularly some time ago, but hopefully he's good enough that all he has to do is show that he can do the news himself and then they'll get rid of the guy next to him (because Update is still going to suck as long as Jost remains in that position). On the bright side, Michael Che will be the first black news anchor in the show's history, so yay for progress!
In other news, Michaels has hired three more new writers (thank god) and also seems to agree that they had WAY too many cast members last year, so they've fired Brooks Whelan, Noel Wells, John Milhiser, and possibly Mike O'Brien, with Nasim Pedrad leaving as well. Totally saw that coming for all of them, but strangely, aside from Nasim those were all newbies last year anyway. And of course, with the stalwart announcer Don Pardo's recent death, a new person will be taking over that role as well. Will all this make the show better, finally? No idea, but Che anchoring Update might actually make it different, if he brings his own style, and that can only be a good thing. I'm dreading my yearly recap of this show after the dreadful last season they had, but I'll still be tuning in. Chris Pratt hosts the season premiere on the 27th (a rather obvious choice) with Ariana Grande as the musical guest, so fingers crossed that things improve this year.
