Fresh off experiencing one of the biggest cast turnovers in the show’s history, Saturday Night Live kicked off its 48th Season this weekend by acknowledging the shake-up.
The episode’s cold open featured Miles Teller and Jon Hamm spoofing Peyton and Eli Manning’s Monday Night Football commentary ManningCast.
“There were a lot of changes at the show, which could be exciting. Let’s see what they spent the entire summer coming up with,” Teller began.
“Well, you know, sometimes they need to bring in a real celebrity when the host isn’t that famous,” Hamm, responded. “I mean, they couldn’t get the star of the big summer movie, your Tom Cruise or your Jon Hamm, they had to get the co-star.”
“Well I heard they rarely put the host in cold opens,” Teller replied, “so when they do, it is special.”
Hamm went on to poke fun at SNL’s longest-tenured star, Kenan Thompson, joking, “They haven’t even used Kenan yet. That’s like putting a whole team of Elis on the field when you’ve got Peyton sitting on the sidelines. No offense, Eli.”
Leading up to SNL’s 48th Season, the iconic series saw the departures of several long-running cast members: Pete Davidson, Kate McKinnon, Chris Redd, Alex Moffat, Melissa Villaseñor, Aristotle Athari, Aidy Bryant, and Kyle Mooney.
Returning cast members include Kenan Thompson, Heidi Gardner, Mikey Day, Andrew Dismukes, Chloe Fineman, James Austin, Punkie Johnson, Bowen Yang, Michael Che, Colin Jost, Ego Nwodim, Chris Redd, Sarah Sherman and Cecily Strong.
Watch Teller and Hamm’s full cold open up top.