Saturday Night Live Extras: SNL Says Goodbye; 2 Cut for Time Sketches

With NBC’s Saturday Night Live wrapping Season 47 last weekend with host Natasha Lyonne and musical guest Japanese Breakfast (check out our thoughts here), we will readily admit that we’ve been going through a bit of withdrawal this week… and especially today. While that’s usually the norm during the off-season, the fact that SNL will be moving ahead on Season 48 without Pete Davidson, Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, and Kyle Mooney makes this all feel a whole lot weirder. So as we get ready to tape up the boxes on our coverage for the season, we have some leftovers to share including SNL’s video tribute to the four departing cast members. But first? We have two more “Cut for Time” sketches from the season finale for you to check out.

In “ESPN’s First Take,” things get heated as co-hosts Molly Qerim (Chloe Fineman), Stephen A. Smith (Chris Redd), and Kendrick Perkins (Kenan Thompson) discuss the NBA playoffs with Michael Rapaport (Lyonne). Following that, “Cigarette Show” finds two nurses (Lyonne & Fineman) hosting a show about the dying art of smoking cigarettes alongside their boss (Bowen Yang) and two French tourists (Maya Rudolph & Fred Armisen, who we saw during Lyonne’s monologue).

And here’s a look at the video tributes that SNL posted in honor of Davidson, McKinnon, Bryant, and Mooney:

Here’s a look back at Davidson continuing his tribute to SNL creator Lorne Michaels that he began during “Weekend Update,” followed by a look back at Davidson, Bryant, McKinnon & Mooney’s “goodbye” sketches:

In the cold open “Final Encounter,” McKinnon’s Colleen Rafferty makes one final return, being questioned at the Pentagon alongside Lyonne & Cecily Strong by Bryant & Mikey Day‘s agents before volunteering to go away with her alien abductors- but not before McKinnon shared some sweet, tender & thinly-veiled words at the end (though McKinnon does reappear near the end of the show in the “Women’s Commercial” sketch to join Mooney for his “goodbye” sketch):

During “Weekend Update”, Bryant and Bowen Yang‘s Trend Forecasters joined Michael Che at the desk to offer a final round of what’s in & what’s out before an especially touching exchange at the end. Following that, we have a look at Davidson’s final visit to the desk as an official SNL cast member:

During a tour behind-the-scenes of SNL’s show night with CBS Mornings host Gayle King for his Kennedy Center honor before the end of the year, Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels revealed that he had been thinking of retiring and thought it was a “really good time to leave.” But first and foremost, his commitment is to see the show make it to that milestone. “I think I’m committed to doing this show until its 50th anniversary, which is in three years. I’d like to see that through, and I have a feeling that’d be a really good time to leave,” Michaels explained.

“I won’t want the show ever to be bad. I care too deeply about it. It’s been my life’s work. So I’m going to do everything I can to see it carry on and carry on well,” he continued. And while Michaels was loathed to discuss details on something that wouldn’t happen for three more years, he did admit when it comes to who would take on the role next that they had “a sense of where we’re headed with that.”

NBC‘s Saturday Night Live Season 47 cast includes Aidy Bryant, Michael Che, Pete Davidson, Mikey Day, Chloe Fineman, Heidi Gardner, Colin Jost, Kate McKinnon, Alex Moffat, Kyle Mooney, Ego Nwodim, Chris Redd, Cecily Strong, Kenan Thompson, Melissa Villaseñor, and Bowen Yang; feature players include the returning Andrew Dismukes and Punkie Johnson, as well as new players Aristotle Athari (Future Man, All Rise), James Austin Johnson (Silicon Valley), and Sarah Sherman (The Eric Andre Show).