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NBC May Give Generation's Least Popular 'Weekend Update' Anchors A Weekly Spin-Off 'Update'

By Dustin Rowles | TV | February 7, 2017 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | February 7, 2017 |


Michael Che and Colin Jost are the exact wrong anchors for this era of Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update”: They are hostile toward identity politics; they continue to engage in the same false equivalencies that led to the election of Donald Trump; Michael Che is dismissive of feminist issues; and while “Weekend Update” was once the only reliable segment every week on SNL, it is often now one of the least reliable, most consistently unfunny segments on the show, despite the wealth of material from which they have to work.

Naturally, according to Politico, it’s Che and Jost who may get their own weekly half-hour stand-alone version of “Weekend Update”:

NBC is in talks to air a 30-minute primetime weekly edition of “Saturday Night Live’s” “Weekend Update.” With Alec Baldwin’s impression of the president, SNL’s popularity has exploded in the Trump era. A stand-alone “Weekend Update” show could help NBC capitalize on a topsy turvy news cycle. “Variety” reports that SNL is up 22 percent in viewership — its strongest start to a season in more than two decades, our colleagues at Morning Media note. The scuttlebutt is the show might air Thursday evenings later this year. An NBC spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.

Look: “Weekend Update” is rich with a history of great anchors. One of their best, Seth Meyers, does a form of “Update” most nights on his late-night talk show. If this were Amy Poehler and Tina Fey, it’d be a great idea. If it were Cecily Strong and Leslie Jones, it’d be a great idea. Hell, I would take the worst two “Update” anchors ever — Kevin Nealon and Colin Quinn — over Jost and Che at this point (OK, that’s not true. But I’d at least take Nealon).

It’s not a bad idea, in general: If there was ever a time to do it, it’s during the Trump Administration. Unfortunately, it shouldn’t happen with Che and Jost at the helm, because the last thing we need in this climate is a bro-y primetime comedy news show that thinks it’s OK to make transgender jokes and that often continues to insist that Hillary Clinton would be just as bad as Trump. If we needed that, we’d just bring back Craig Kilborn.