‘Saturday Night Live’ Starts Season 46 With Alec Baldwin and Jim Carrey Recreating the Presidential Debate

The moment comedy fans have long-been waiting for has finally arrived, NBC late-night sketch series “Saturday Night Live” returned for its 46th season on October 3rd 2020, jumping right into the political news of the times with a cold open sketch about the first presidential debate which took place on September 29th 2020. After rotating guest stars portrayed former vice president and current democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden in Season 45, Jim Carrey slipped into the white wig for this premiere sketch, and for the season going forward. Carrey was joined by Alec Baldwin as President Donald Trump, and Beck Bennett, who played the Fox News’ moderator Chris Wallace.

Maya Rudolph also popped in, reprising her Emmy-winning role of Senator and vice presidential hopeful Kamala Harris, and Harry Styles made a cameo when Carrey’s Biden needed to take a break to listen to a meditation tape. Styles appeared in a thought bubble, reading a calming, meditative story. Carrey’s Biden walked out on the debate stage in dark-tinted aviator sunglasses, mugging for the crowd by adjusting his tie and offering finger guns.

Carrey’s Biden also pulled out a tape measure to check the distance between the podiums and pull his back a few inches as needed. The debate began with the topic of the Supreme Court, with Baldwin’s Trump starting things off by instead just listing complaints. When it was Carrey’s Biden’s turn to answer the same question, Baldwin’s Trump interrupted him immediately.

Baldwin’s Trump also commented on how Biden is always wearing the biggest mask and standing 200 feet away from people.

Throughout the sketch, Carrey’s Biden also gave himself little pep talks to keep him from losing his cool. And of course, the topic of white supremacy came up just under the wire for the sketch. Baldwin’s Trump listed a number of groups, including the Proud Boys and White Eagles. Rudolph’s Harris showed up after Baldwin’s Trump started using a laser pointer on Carrey’s Biden.

Rudolph’s Harris actually got Baldwin’s Trump to apologize. The end of the sketch came back around on covid. Carrey’s Biden literally took out a television remote and paused Baldwin’s Trump mid-word in order to talk directly to the American people. Later in the episode, Colin Jost and Michael Che sat back behind the Weekend Update desk again, kicking off the segment by admitting how hard it was to process the news of Trump’s covid diagnosis right before they were scheduled to return to air after four months of hiatus.

Eighteen days after 9/11, New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani took the stage for the first episode of “Saturday Night Live” since the terrorist attacks at Studio 8H inside NBC’s Rockefeller Center headquarters. It was a solemn cold open. Giuliani, flanked by firefighters and police officers, implored viewers to carry on in the face of tragedy. Paul Simon, wearing an FDNY hat, performed a melancholic rendition of “The Boxer”.

But the grave mood was leavened with humor, leading to one of the most memorable moments in “Saturday Night Live”‘s modern era.

The premiere of “Saturday Night Live”‘s 46th season would take place against a similar backdrop of national mourning and crisis. More than 200,000 people across the country lost their lives to covid. Millions had been infected. The economy was devastated. Trump and Melania had tested positive for covid, throwing the White House and the presidential campaign into turmoil.

The challenges for America’s marquee sketch show were stark. The degree of difficulty just went up a hundredfold. “Saturday Night Live” did a show with anthrax in the building. “Saturday Night Live” did a show after 9/11. That was what “Saturday Night Live” had always done. To its audience, it was really important “Saturday Night Live” showed up. But this year, even showing up, and in particular, returning to the high-stakes live format, was no simple matter.

The covid pandemic, which forced “Saturday Night Live” to suspend live broadcasts in March 2020 and wrapped its previous season with three remotely-produced episodes, had thrusted the show into a tangle of unprecedented creative obstacles and logistical hurdles. There were numerous challenges that manifested themselves in everything, from the construction of sets, makeup, wardrobe, to the choreography that went on backstage.

It was not simple, and it was going to require significant adjustments.

The jarring new covid-era reality for the late-night institution was plain to see in a pair of photos posted on “Saturday Night Live”‘s official Instagram account. The first photo showed Chris Rock, the host of the season premiere, leafing through a script while wearing a white mask. The second photo provided a zoomed-out view of cast and crew members individually seated at folding tables spaced 6 feet apart.

In the covid-era, producers of late-night comedy shows and daytime talk shows had came up with various ways to create a sense of normalcy. “The Tonight Show” returned to 30 Rock without a studio audience. Stephen Colbert and Trevor Noah hosted their shows from their homes. “The Kelly Clarkson Show” featured a virtual audience. “Saturday Night Live” was moving forward with plans for a limited in-studio audience.

“Saturday Night Live” was working closely with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office on the details. Cuomo’s office, along with the New York Health Department, provided “Saturday Night Live” with criteria it would need to meet in order to invite an audience back into Studio 8H. The criteria, outlined on a state website, mandated that indoor production facilities should not exceed 50 percent occupancy, among other rules.

The ticketing website 1iota recently allowed prospective audience members to register for a pre-screening process to determine eligibility to participate in “Saturday Night Live”‘s audience.

Anyone selected would need to take a mandatory covid test, submit to a temperature check, and wear a face covering in addition to other guidelines. An in-studio audience was integral to the format and formula of “Saturday Night Live” as the oxygen and lifeblood of the show. The impact of the audience shaped cast members’ performance and geared them up.

Cast members would wear masks until the moment the red light went on, at which point the Velcro back will be taken off. If the first stretch of the new “Saturday Night Live” season came off with few technical glitches or obvious hiccups, the show might provide a model for concerts, Broadway shows, and other forms of live entertainment that had been brought to a standstill by shutdowns related to covid. People in the television industry would come away with a better understanding of what they could do and what they could not do during the covid crisis, a lot of people would be watching for that.

But as with any season of a show widely known for its political satire and ripped-from-the-headlines riffs, “Saturday Night Live” was expected to grapple with more than covid-era restrictions. “Saturday Night Live” was slated to hit the airwaves in the final stretch of a fierce presidential campaign unlike any other, a race that supplied an inordinate number of comedic possibilities. The first presidential debate, a chaotic melee during which Trump repeatedly interrupted and shouted over former Vice President Joe Biden, likely provided “Saturday Night Live”‘s writing team with particularly fertile ground for parody.

But Trump’s covid diagnosis might have moved “Saturday Night Live”‘s writers to potentially soften their edges when it came to mocking the president.

Nick Semlyen speculated that “Saturday Night Live” might need to cut much of its Trump-centric material given his diagnosis. Presumably “Saturday Night Live” was going to have to scrap a lot of it. Carrey had been tapped to play the Democratic nominee. With this election, it was not an original thought or statement to say that there was a lot at stake.