The forty-fifth season of the NBC comedy series Saturday Night Live premiered on September 28, 2019, during the 2019–20 television season with host Woody Harrelson and musical guest Billie Eilish, and concluded on May 9, 2020 with host Kristen Wiig and musical guest Boyz II Men featuring Babyface. This season featured the return of Eddie Murphy as host, on December 21, 2019, for the first time in 35 years. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the season was temporarily halted on March 16, 2020. The move came hours after New York CityMayor Bill de Blasio ordered all theaters in the city to close by the following morning. The season resumed on April 11, 2020 with three remotely produced episodes containing Weekend Update and other contributions from the cast. The self-filmed episodes, with pre-recorded from-home segments, were instead referred to as Saturday Night Live at Home. The first remote episode was hosted by Tom Hanks, who survived coronavirus after being diagnosed the month prior. The third of these episodes, airing on May 9, 2020 and hosted by former cast member Kristen Wiig, acted as the show's season finale.
Cast
Prior to the beginning of the season, Leslie Jones, who joined the cast one month into season 40, left after having been with the show for almost five full seasons. Three new featured players were announced on September 12, 2019: SNL staff writer Bowen Yang, Chloe Fineman of The Groundlings, and stand-up comedianShane Gillis. Yang is the first fully East Asian-American cast member in the show's history. The choice of Gillis as a cast member generated backlash after podcast clips of him making racist remarks were reposted, including referring to presidential candidateAndrew Yang using a racial slur. Gillis has also made derogatory remarks about Muslims, women, and the LGBTQ community on his online showMatt and Shane's Secret Podcast. Gillis was let go from the cast only four days after the announcement of his hiring, prior to the airing of the first episode. Heidi Gardner and Chris Redd were upgraded to repertory status this season while Ego Nwodim remained a featured player. Pete Davidson took a leave of absenceat the beginning of the season, missing the first two episodes before returning for the third, due to filming commitments of The Suicide Squad. He was still credited in the episodes he missed.
During the credits of the premiere episode, it was revealed the show added Dan Bulla, Emma Clark, Dan Licata, and Jasmine Pierce as new writers. Michael Che, Colin Jost, and Kent Sublette continue as head writers for the show.
Episodes
''Saturday Night Live at Home''
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City, all episodes of the show were cancelled effective March 16. The cancellation preempted three previously announced episodes: March 28, April 4, and April 11. The March 28 and April 4 episodes were replaced by reruns. The show resumed production on April 11 in a new format, with cast members remotely appearing from their individual homes. The new format for the show became known as "Saturday Night Live at Home". The host and musical guest for the cancelled March 28 episode had been publicly announced prior to the cancellation. John Krasinski would have been the host and Dua Lipa would have been the musical guest. It would have been Krasinski's first time hosting the show and Lipa's second time appearing as musical guest.
