The forty-third season of the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live premiered on September 30, 2017, during the 2017–2018 television season with host Ryan Gosling and musical guest Jay-Z, and concluded on May 19, 2018, with host Tina Fey and musical guest Nicki Minaj.[1] Like the final four episodes of season 42, season 43 was broadcast live in all four time zones within the contiguous United States, with the exception of the Natalie Portman/Dua Lipa episode due to the network's commitment to the NFL.[2]

Quick Facts No. of episodes, Release ...
Saturday Night Live
Season 43
No. of episodes21
Release
Original networkNBC
Original releaseSeptember 30, 2017 (2017-09-30) 
May 19, 2018 (2018-05-19)
Season chronology
 Previous
season 42
Next 
season 44
List of episodes
Close

Cast

Prior to the start of the season, longtime cast members Vanessa Bayer, Bobby Moynihan, and Sasheer Zamata all left the show after seven, nine, and four seasons, respectively.[3][4] Following Bayer, Moynihan, and Zamata's departures, the show hired three new featured players: comedian and writer Heidi Gardner of The Groundlings, iO Chicago alum Luke Null, and stand-up comedian Chris Redd, who previously did sketch comedy at Second City.[5] Redd had been incorrectly reported as joining the cast during the previous season.[6]

Mikey Day, Alex Moffat, and Melissa Villaseñor continued as featured players.

With this announcement came the confirmation that the rest of the cast from the previous season would return, including guest star Alec Baldwin in his role as President Donald Trump.[7][8]

With his return, Kenan Thompson surpassed Darrell Hammond's record as the longest-tenured cast member in the show's history, with a total of fifteen seasons compared to Hammond's fourteen seasons from 1995-2009.[9]

This is the only season for Luke Null, who was let go after the season's end.[10]

Cast roster

bold denotes "Weekend Update" anchor

Crew

Writers

Prior to the start of the season, the show added Steven Castillo, Andrew Dismukes, Claire Friedman, Sam Jay, Erik Marino, Nimesh Patel, and Gary Richardson to the writing staff.[5]

Also prior to the season, head writers Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider (who had written for the show overall since 2011, and were named as head writers at the start of the previous season) departed the show, leaving Kent Sublette and Bryan Tucker as the sole head writers for the first-half of the season.[11] Weekend Update writer Katie Rich (who was previously suspended midway through last season for a controversial Tweet about Barron Trump) was brought back to the writing staff with the Weekend Update: Summer Edition episodes, and officially returned as a writer this season.[12] Additionally, beginning with this season, Weekend Update writers were credited separately from the rest of the writing staff.

At the start of the season, writer Streeter Seidell (who joined the writing staff in 2014) was named as the season's sole writing supervisor.[13]

On December 12, 2017, Jost and Che were named co-head writers, making Che the first African American head writer.[14] Jost was previously the head writer for 3 years from 2012 to 2015.

With the same episode, writers Fran Gillespie and Sudi Green (who had both joined the writing staff in 2015) were named as the co-writing supervisors alongside Seidell.[15]

This was the final season for longtime segment director/writer Dave McCary (who had overall been with the show since 2013), as he left the show after five years.[16] This was Tucker's final season as head writer (a role he previously had for 4½ seasons, starting in 2014), as he would be named a Senior Writer, at the start of the next season.[16] This was also the only season for Friedman, Marino, and Patel.[16]

Episodes

More information No. overall, No. in season ...
No.
overall
No. in
season
HostMusical guestOriginal air dateRatings/
Share
8301Ryan GoslingJay-ZSeptember 30, 2017 (2017-09-30)4.5[17]

8312Gal GadotSam SmithOctober 7, 2017 (2017-10-07)4.4[17]

  • Sam Smith performs "Too Good at Goodbyes" and "Pray".
  • Jason Aldean performs "I Won't Back Down" in the cold open as a tribute to the victims of the 2017 Las Vegas shooting and to Tom Petty, who died earlier in the week.
  • As mentioned by Gadot during the monologue, this was the first episode to be broadcast live in Israel; until this night, it took a week for episodes aired in the US to appear on Israeli TV. During the monologue, Gadot speaks a few sentences in Hebrew for the Israeli audience. The Hebrew sentences are subtitled in English.
  • "Safelite AutoGlass" was subsequently pulled from rebroadcasts and the Internet after Safelite complained on Twitter that the sketch was offensive (and the humor in it would be considered in bad taste due to the influx of news at the time about male celebrities being outed as sexual offenders). Rebroadcasts of the show replaced the segment with a previously unaired, but released to the Internet, music video sketch called "The Last Fry".[18][19] As of 2019, Hulu has the original Safelite sketch and "The Last Fry" is no longer shown.
  • When the episode was rerun on August 18, 2018, a photograph of Aretha Franklin, who had died two days earlier, was shown in silence before the goodnights.
8323Kumail NanjianiP!nkOctober 14, 2017 (2017-10-14)4.6/11[20]

8334Larry DavidMiley CyrusNovember 4, 2017 (2017-11-04)4.7/11[21]

8345Tiffany HaddishTaylor SwiftNovember 11, 2017 (2017-11-11)4.3/10[23]

  • Taylor Swift performs "... Ready for It?" and an acoustic version of "Call It What You Want."
  • Larry David and Jason Sudeikis appear as Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden, respectively, in "DNC Commercial". David, while in character, references the controversy that his monologue from the previous week generated, saying that any guy who makes jokes about concentration camps (himself) "should rot in hell".
  • A photo of SNL sound man George Corrado is shown in silence before the goodnights.
  • Haddish won an Emmy in 2018 for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for hosting.[24]
8356Chance the RapperEminemNovember 18, 2017 (2017-11-18)4.3/10[25]

  • Contrary to the usual format in which the musical guest perform two songs at two different segments, Eminem performs a single medley of "Walk on Water", "Stan",[n 1] and "Love the Way You Lie." Skylar Grey performs the entire medley with Eminem, but is not credited as a musical guest.
  • Writer Gary Richardson appears in "Family Feud" as Steve Harvey’s fictional brother Ricky.
  • Questlove and Common appear in the pre-recorded "Rap History".
8367Saoirse RonanU2December 2, 2017 (2017-12-02)4.3/10[26]

  • U2 performs "American Soul" and "Get Out of Your Own Way."
  • Alec Baldwin appears as Donald Trump in the cold open.
  • Greta Gerwig appears in the pre-recorded "Office Race".
  • John McEnroe appears in "Bachelor Auction".
  • "Aer Lingus" generated controversy for portraying Irish people in a stereotypical manner. Ronan defended the sketch, saying that it was written with her input.[27]
8378James FrancoSZADecember 9, 2017 (2017-12-09)4.5/10[28]

8389Kevin HartFoo FightersDecember 16, 2017 (2017-12-16)4.6/11[29]

83910Sam RockwellHalseyJanuary 13, 2018 (2018-01-13)4.6/10[30]

  • Halsey performs "Bad at Love" and "Him & I" with G-Eazy.
  • Fred Armisen and Bill Murray appear as Michael Wolff and Steve Bannon, respectively, in the cold open.
  • Stanley Tucci appears in the pre-recorded "Tucci Gang".[31]
  • Rockwell accidentally said "fucking" during "Science Room with Mr. Science" (when he tells the kid assistants played by Mikey Day and Cecily Strong "You can't be this fucking stupid"). During Weekend Update, both Colin Jost and Michael Che said "shithole" while discussing a comment President Trump made using that word and how NBC wanted them to tone it down, but openly defied it. All instances were censored for the West Coast feed, which is delayed by a few seconds. While the program airs during the safe harbor period in the Eastern and Central time zones, SNL has aired live coast to coast since the spring of 2017, meaning that in the Mountain and Pacific time zones, Rockwell's comment would have been heard between 9:30 and 10:00 PM or 8:30 and 9:00 PM, respectively, potentially subjecting network affiliates in those regions to FCC fines for indecency if it had not been censored.[32]
84011Jessica ChastainTroye SivanJanuary 20, 2018 (2018-01-20)4.3/10[33]

84112Will FerrellChris StapletonJanuary 27, 2018 (2018-01-27)4.9/11[34]

  • Chris Stapleton performs "Midnight Train to Memphis" and "Hard Livin'", both with Sturgill Simpson.
  • Tracy Morgan appears in the pre-recorded "The House".
84213Natalie PortmanDua LipaFebruary 3, 2018 (2018-02-03)4.6/12[35]

84314Charles BarkleyMigosMarch 3, 2018 (2018-03-03)4.2/10[36]

84415Sterling K. BrownJames BayMarch 10, 2018 (2018-03-10)4.1/10[37]

  • James Bay performs "Pink Lemonade" and "Wild Love."
  • Vanessa Bayer appears as Dawn Lazarus on Weekend Update.
84516Bill HaderArcade FireMarch 17, 2018 (2018-03-17)4.5/10[38]

84617Chadwick BosemanCardi BApril 7, 2018 (2018-04-07)4.6/11[39]

  • Cardi B performs a medley of "Bodak Yellow" and "Bartier Cardi" for her first set and "Be Careful" for her second. She also appears in the pre-recorded "Aidy B".
    • During her performance of "Be Careful", Cardi B revealed her pregnancy for the first time by displaying her pregnant belly in a Christian Siriano dress.[40]
  • This episode re-aired on September 5, 2020 in tribute to Chadwick Boseman following his August 28 death.
  • Alec Baldwin appears as Donald Trump in the cold open.
84718John MulaneyJack WhiteApril 14, 2018 (2018-04-14)3.9/9[41]

84819Donald GloverChildish GambinoMay 5, 2018 (2018-05-05)4.1/10[42]

84920Amy SchumerKacey MusgravesMay 12, 2018 (2018-05-12)4.3/10[43]

  • Kacey Musgraves performs "High Horse" and "Slow Burn" and appears in the pre-recorded "Spirituality Rap", unaired during the episode though subsequently released online.
  • The mothers of Beck Bennett (Sarah), Aidy Bryant (Georgianne), Pete Davidson (Amy), Mikey Day (Sylvia), Colin Jost (Kerry), Kyle Mooney (Linda), Luke Null (Cindy), Chris Redd (Margaret), Kenan Thompson (Elizabeth), and Melissa Villaseñor (Lupe) appear in the cold open.
  • Melissa McCarthy appears as Michael Che's stepmother on Weekend Update.
85021Tina FeyNicki MinajMay 19, 2018 (2018-05-19)4.5/11[44]

Close

Specials

More information Title, Original air date ...
TitleOriginal air dateRatings/
Share
"The David S. Pumpkins Halloween Special"October 28, 2017 (2017-10-28)3.4/8[45]
21-minute animated special where David S. Pumpkins teaches a pair of siblings the true meaning of Halloween. Starring Tom Hanks as David S. Pumpkins, Mikey Day, Bobby Moynihan, and Streeter Seidell. Narrated by Peter Dinklage.
"SNL Presents: Halloween"October 28, 2017 (2017-10-28)3.1/9[45]

A collection of Halloween- and horror-themed sketches, including:

Close

Notes

  1. Eminem has previously performed "Stan" with Dido on October 7, 2000, the season premiere of the show's 26th season.

References

Wikiwand in your browser!

Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.

Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.

Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.