Saturday Night Live (season 45)
The forty-fifth season of the NBC comedy series "Saturday Night Live" (also branded Saturday Night Live 45 and SNL45) 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 Daniel Craig and musical guest The Weeknd. This season featured the return of Eddie Murphy as host, on December 21, 2019, for the first time in 35 years. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the season was temporarily halted on March 16, 2020. The move came hours after New  York City Mayor 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 COVID-19 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 (who had appeared as Kim Jong-Un in a season 44 episode hosted by Sandra Oh), Chloe Fineman of The Groundlings, and stand-up comedian Shane Gillis. Yang is the first fully East Asian-American cast member in the show's history. Fineman auditioned for the show in 2018 for the previous  season. The choice of Gillis as a cast member generated backlash after podcast clips of him making racist remarks were reposted, including referring to presidential candidate Andrew Yang using a racial slur. Gillis has also made derogatory remarks about Muslims, women, and the LGBTQ community on his online show "Matt 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 (both originally hired in 2017 at the start of season 43) were upgraded to repertory status  this season while Ego Nwodim remained a featured player. Pete Davidson took a leave of absence at 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. Cast roster. Repertory players Featured players bold denotes "Weekend Update" anchor Writers. Dan Bulla, Emma Clark, Dan Licata, and Jasmine Pierce were added to the writing staff. Michael Che, Colin Jost, and Kent Sublette continue as head writers for the show. This was the final season for longtime writer James Anderson . Anderson had been a writer for the show since 2000. Episodes. <onlyinclude> Section::::"Saturday Night Live at Home". On March 16, 2020 it was announced that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the episodes that were to air March 28, April 4, and April 11 were cancelled, with reruns shown in place of the first two. John Krasinski and Dua Lipa had previously been announced as host and musical guest for the cancelled March 28 episode. It would have been Krasinski's first time hosting the show and Lipa's second time appearing as musical guest. Both Krasinski and Lipa 's appearances were eventually rescheduled in the following season. During the 46th season, Lipa appeared as musical guest in episode 9, and Krasinski hosted the show in episode 10. During an episode of The Strokes' radio series with guest Colin Jost, it was revealed that the band was scheduled to perform on the April 11 episode, in promotion of their new album "The New Abnormal". It would have been The Strokes' fourth appearance as musical guest and first time appearing on the show since 2011. The band eventually had their fourth musical guest appearance during the October 31, 2020 episode  of the 46th season. During her monologue while hosting the October 17, 2020 episode, Issa Rae suggested that her hosting of the show had been preempted by the COVID shutdown, saying that she was supposed to have hosted the show "back in March". It was additionally revealed that Lady Gaga had originally been booked as the musical guest for April 11th in order to promote her Chromatica album, in what would have been her fifth musical appearance on the show. Her appearance has yet to be rescheduled, but she is in discussions to appear towards the end of Season 47 , as she resumes album promotion after a 2-year pause caused by the pandemic. An additional musical appearance by Rihanna was fixed for the season’s penultimate episode, as part of promotion for her completed ninth album, whose release was subsequently withheld due to the pandemic. It would have constituted her sixth turn as musical guest. As of 2022, her appearance is yet to be rescheduled, and the project remains unreleased. Various insiders have tipped an imminent release in April 2022, although it is unclear if promotion will entail a rescheduled performance on the show. The show resumed on April  11 in a new format, with cast members remotely appearing from their homes via video conferencing. The new format for the show became known as "Saturday Night Live at Home". </onlyinclude>