If you could build the perfect Saturday Night Live episode, pulling from 50-plus years of sketches and performances, what would you choose?
That’s the premise of a new short-form series from SNL called The Rundown. The show, which will stream via Peacock, YouTube and SNL’s social channels, asks current and former castmembers to choose their favorite sketches and musical performances to build a fantasy episode on the show’s rundown board.
Up first is “Weekend Update” anchor Colin Jost, who discusses the importance of — and difficulty nailing — the cold open sketch. Watch the episode below.
Jost notes that the cold open for SNL is often truly cold, because after a warm-up comic, “there is like 10 minutes of jazz” from the in-house band as the show waits to go live at 11:30 p.m. ET. “You are going from an ice-cold vibe in here, and if you’re good as a performer and good as a writer at being able to get that audience laughing early on, it is a feat.”
Jost estimates he’s written about 100 cold opens during his time on SNL, which he joined as a writer in the 2005-06 season. His choice for The Rundown is from season 34 in 2008, with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler playing Sarah Palin and Katie Couric in a parody of the real-life CBS News interview between the two. Seth Meyers wrote the sketch.
Episodes of The Rundown will debut on Wednesdays when SNL is off that week and run through mid-June. Future episodes will feature Dana Carvey, Mikey Day, Chloe Fineman, Colin Jost, Bowen Yang and Questlove choosing their favorites.
SNL’s next live episode is scheduled for April 4, with Jack Black hosting and Jack White as musical guest.
