SNL

And the SNL changes keep rolling ahead of Season 42. Just days after losing cast favorites Taran Killam and Jay Pharoah (and Jon Rudnitsky, sorry) from the series, SNL has elected two new head writers to take the reigns before the fall season.

SNL is built for a bit of turnover here and there, but that doesn’t remove the sting from losing some of its best not-ready-for-primetime-players. To wit, Season 42 has some surprising departures, including series veterans Taran Killam and Jay Pharoah.

SNL won’t return for Season 41 until at least September, but considering their comparatively light workloads, Weekend Update hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che are ending their summer breaks early to take on the political conventions. Ahead of a more classic Weekend Update, however, watch as Jost and Che take to the streets of Cleveland for some fun at the RNC’s expense.

SNL vet Fred Armisen returned to Studio 8H this weekend to host the Season 41 finale, and as you might expect, things got pretty weird. In between delivering the longest, most delightfully strange monologue in recent memory and reviving a couple of fan-favorite characters, Armisen starred in this pre-recorded spoof of Dead Poets Society. Riffing on a 27-year-old drama is certainly unexpected, but not nearly as unexpected as what happens at the end of this thing.

We’ve wondered for a few weeks now if SNL would appoint one or two hosts to finish out Season 41 beyond Room star Brie Larson’s turn this weekend, and the Views are officially in. Not only will Drake host the penultimate hour, SNL great Fred Armisen will lead the season finale.

Maybe a better title for this fake trailer for a fake faith-based drama would be God's Not Gay, but you can see how that one might have been a bit too risky. In the one sketch that didn't feature guest host Julia Louis-Dreyfus, SNL offers this hilariously silly satire of movies like God's Not Dead (okay, mostly just that movie alone), complete with Lifetime Original movie production values and melodramatic courtroom scenes.

Eternally associated with the role of Seinfeld’s Elaine (and since 2013, Veep’s title boss), Julia Louis-Dreyfus garners significantly less recognition for her time as an SNL player in the mid ‘80s. Now, with her third SNL hosting turn this coming weekend, Dreyfus reveals that her initial SNL years weren’t fond memories, given some of the sexism and lacking recognition.

Naked & Afraid is an actual reality show that just began its fifth season on the Discovery Channel, but it sounds so much like something that was cooked up in the SNL writers’ room that you can be forgiven for thinking it’s entirely a gag. The premise is patently ridiculous: two strangers are thrown into the wild without clothing or supplies and must survive for 21 days. But SNL has devised a “celebrity” edition of the show and they tossed guest host Peter Dinklage and the incredible Leslie Jones into it.

Game of Thrones may have played coy with Peter Dinklage’s Tyrion by the first Season 6 trailer, but the half-man will host full time when April offers its first SNL. The erstwhile Peter Drunklage has booked his first official SNL hosting, just weeks ahead of the Game of Thrones premiere.

Last night’s episode of SNL felt a little unfocused, like it didn’t quite know what to do with guest Jonah Hill. However, when the sketches connected, they really connected, with the best of them truly utilizing Hill’s acting chops (he is a two-time Oscar nominee, after all). So it shouldn’t be too surprising that the high point for Hill came in a pre-filmed sketch — he’s funny in regular sketches, but he really shines when things get a little cinematic.