Topline
Appearances from Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift, an impression of Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders, a down-to-the-details Barbie parody and a speech about the Israel-Hamas conflict by host Pete Davidson defined the return of Saturday Night Live when it premiered its 49th season this weekend—after a longer-than-usual hiatus due to the writers’ strike.
Host Pete Davidson during the “I’m Just Pete” sketch on Saturday, October 14, 2023.
Key Facts
The surprise appearance of Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce has ranked as the most-watched sketch of the night on the Saturday Night Live Youtube channel, with 940,000 views in the first 14 hours—the skit features comedians posing as Fox’s NFL Sunday team, who can’t seem to stop talking about his apparent relationship with Taylor Swift long enough to discuss the sport until they cut to sideline reporter Kelce, who “actually wants to talk football.”
The second most-popular video wasn’t a sketch at all—Davidson’s cold open, which has been seen 694,000 times on YouTube, was a two-minute speech discussing the Israel-Hamas war that has killed at least 4,070 people in the Palestinian territories and Israel in the last week, leading with the claim that “sometimes comedy is really the only way forward through tragedy.”
Former NFL defensive back Deion Sanders’ coaching at University of Colorado Boulder was the subject of a “Weekend Update” segment starring Kenan Thompson as Coach Prime, which has been viewed more than 638,000 times; the skit mocked Sanders and the Buffaloes, who blew a 29-point lead in a loss to Stanford the night before, and their coach’s response that he was “truly upset” and “truly disturbed” by the loss.
Davidson was the subject of the next most-popular sketch (with 682,000 views) as he mocked his own famous antics, long list of celebrity exes, rehab stints and crashing his car into a Beverly Hills home earlier this year via a personalized rendition of the Barbie movie’s I’m Just Ken song, complete with a hot-pink set, shirtless backup dancers and a crew of various “Petes.”
The always-talked-about opening monologue for Saturday’s show, also done by Davidson, had 532,000 views as of 3 p.m. Sunday—he performed a standup routine about trying to connect with his younger sister while watching Game of Thrones, his upbringing on Staten Island as “the only island in the world with a worse reputation than Epstein’s, somehow” and his “origin story” as a stand-up comedian.
Host Pete Davidson during the cold open.
Crucial Quotee
“I saw so many terrible pictures this week of children suffering, Israeli children and Palestinian children,” Davidson, whose firefighter father died in the September 11 attack response, said during the cold open. “It took me back to a really horrible, horrible place. No one in this world deserves to suffer like that, especially not kids.”
Key Background
The episode, which kicked off the 49th season of Saturday Night Live, was the second-most trending topic on Google Sunday. In addition to the most popular sketches, it included musical performances by Ice Spice and a surprise appearance by Taylor Swift to introduce the rapper. Ice Spice rocketed to fame this summer when she appeared on a remix of Swift’s song “Karma” and Swift called her “the one to watch.” The show was also buoyed by the Kelce-Swift dating rumors that have taken the media by storm. The pair was seen holding hands on a dinner date before the show in their first public display of affection since rumors of their relationship started months ago, and they attended the SNL after party together following their respective appearances. Davidson was initially slated to host SNL in May, but last season was cut short after the Writers’ Guild of America went on strike for months. The writers struck a deal with major film and TV studios last month, allowing SNL to return to the airwaves—though some other productions are sidelined due to a separate actors’ strike.
Surprising Fact
Both Kelce and Swift have hosted their own episodes of Saturday Night Live. Kelce hosted the show in March as the first ever NFL tight end to do so, and Swift made her hosting debut back in 2009 at the age of 19. She’s been back on the show five times since, including Saturday’s introduction of Ice Spice.
Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift are seen leaving the SNL after party.
Further Reading
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2023/10/15/saturday-night-live-returns-here-are-the-5-biggest-sketches-from-kelce-to-coach-prime/