If you’ve been keeping tabs on Saturday Night Live over the past couple of seasons, there has been a major focus on the show’s “Cold Open(s),” which have featured Alec Baldwin playing Donald Trump, as well as a rotating cast of celebrities playing Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Pence and a slew of other public figures. But as we head into 2021, Trump will be leaving the White House. Recently, SNL’s Chloe Fineman was asked about the prospect of the series being less reliant on its Donald Trump sketches in the future.
According to Chloe Fineman, taking on new topics during SNL’s “Cold Open” will be a bit of a relief in some ways, but will also mean Saturday Night Live is going to need to figure out a new and different bent as the new administration takes over. The show has already started heading in that direction by replacing Jim Carrey with Alex Moffat as Joe Biden. While changes are already in the works, Fineman admits the prospect of doing fewer Donald Trump segments is something that is on her mind.
Yeah, definitely. I definitely spent a lot of the early part of the year like being, ‘Here’s my Kayleigh McEnany’ and ‘Here’s another blonde Republican,’ kind of manically like, ‘This is the last hurrah.’ Then I was like, ‘What are we going to do?’ because they’re so funny. But I’m sure Trump is just going to get louder and obnoxious. But it is definitely nice to have the break.
Of course, Chloe Fineman isn’t always playing someone political during SNL’s “Cold Open.” Speaking to Variety about Donald Trump sketches and other topics, she also mentioned the time she played Nicole Kidman for an Undoing-oriented portion of a “Cold Open” earlier in Season 46. Granted, that was still a political opening bit, but it wasn’t reliant on Alec Baldwin’s Trump impression and it gave her a good chance to do portray another celebrity.
For some time now, Maya Rudolph has been on board to play Kamala Harris on the late night sketch series, as well. While it would be understandable if she went the way of Jim Carrey’s Biden, she did previously tell Time she “like[s] being on call for SNL.” So, like Alec Baldwin, she may stick around over the long haul.
Speaking of transitions, Alec Baldwin also previously said that he was not too bent out of shape to no longer need to play Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live in the future. He noted a few months ago that it had been fun, but:
I don’t believe I’ve ever been this overjoyed to lose a job before!
We’ll have to wait and see what SNL brings to the table in 2021. Luckily, the late night sketch series has added some new talent over the last couple of seasons that should shake things up a little. In the meantime, you can see what’s coming up for the late night sketch series in the new year with our guide.
