“Really!?”
Yes, really — Seth Meyers, co-anchor of SNL’s “Weekend Update,” treated us with his final performance on Sat., Jan. 30, when we we said goodbye to one of our favorite Saturday Night Live cast members who was a bright spot in the show’s almost four decades of entertainment.
Meyers joined the cast in 2012 and is the show’s second-longest performer. His last show was full of sentimental farewells from fellow and former cast members.
Amy Poehler, Bill Hader (dressed as Stefon, naturally), Andy Samberg and Fred Armisen showed up at the end of Meyers’"Weekend Update," with co-anchor Cecily Strong, to convey their well-wishes, brining a bittersweet emotional tone to the segment's sign-off. Stefon's diva shenanigans injected much needed absurdity to the proceedings when he shot evil looks at Strong and dispatched a territorial barb : "You barely know him!”
The Weekend Update co-anchor, who happened to start as an SNL head writer, will be turning over his crown to begin a new chapter of his career. You’ll find him hosting NBC’s Late Night in place of Jimmy Fallon, who will be taking over The Tonight Show on Mon., Feb. 17.
The recipient of the crown? Colin Jost, who is coincidentally the show’s head writer at the moment.
Jost joins Strong to co-anchor the “Weekend Update” beginning Sat., March 1. You'll likely find that his humor is on point with our expectations of the fake news segment — he's a former president of Harvard's National Lampoon (in 2004), and he’s been behind the scenes since 2005 and has contributed largely to some of our favorite sketches. He was named the show’s head writer in 2012, and he appeared in and wrote the screenplay for Staten Island Summer, an movie based on his days a lifeguard that's due to be released later this year. Jost has also appeared in a couple of the show’s sketches and is a busy stand-up comic.
Either way, hopefully the writer and stand-up comedian’s wit proves to win us over and keeps the “Weekend Update” as one of the more praised segments of the show. Though SNL has been battling with poor ratings and critic reviews for some time now, that particular segment seems to help keep the show afloat.