Why ‘Saturday Night Live’ didn’t air a new episode this weekend
By Dan Heching, CNN
Due to the continued film and TV writers’ strike, “Saturday Night Live” did not air a new episode on Saturday evening, as originally planned.
Former cast member Pete Davidson was set to return as host for the long-running NBC comedy sketch show, along with musical guest Lil Uzi Vert.
Davidson was seen on Saturday morning in a video on social media handing out pizza to striking writers in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
“Gotta support the writers, man!” Davidson is heard saying in the brief clip. “No writers, no shows without the writers.”
NBC announced the cancellation of new episodes going forward on Tuesday. A rerun from March 11, featuring Jenna Ortega as host and The 1975 as musical guest, will air on Saturday instead.
Preparation for the new episode featuring Davidson was halted when the Writers Guild of America called for a strike on Monday, after failing to reach an agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers when the WGA’s current contract expired just before midnight.
Other late night network programs, including “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” “Late Night with Seth Meyers” and “The Tonight Show” have also gone dark due to the strike.
A writers’ strike could shut down production on most television shows and cause a domino effect in the wider realm of the entertainment industry, pushing back the return of many programs set for the fall.
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CNN’s Alli Rosenbloom contributed to this story.
