Saturday Night Live season 44


The forty-fourth season of the NBC comedy series Saturday Night Live premiered on September 29, 2018, during the 2018–19 television season with host Adam Driver and musical guest Kanye West and concluded on May 18, 2019, with host Paul Rudd and musical guest DJ Khaled.

Cast

Prior to the start of the season, Luke Null was let go from the show. Upright Citizens Brigade alum Ego Nwodim joined the cast as a featured player, replacing Null. Nwodim became the seventh African-American female cast member in the show's history. Mikey Day, Alex Moffat, and Melissa Villaseñor, all three of whom were hired in 2016 for season 42, were upgraded to repertory status, while Heidi Gardner and Chris Redd, both of whom were hired in 2017 for season 43, remained as featured players.
Aside from Null, all other cast members from the previous season returned to the show, including guest star Alec Baldwin in his role as President Donald Trump. Despite mounting rumors that this would be the last season for Kenan Thompson, Thompson insisted he would not be leaving SNL anytime soon.
This would be the final season for Leslie Jones, who had been with the cast for five seasons since 2014. Jones announced her departure on August 27, 2019, in favor of focusing on her movie career.

Cast roster

Repertory players
Featured players
bold denotes "Weekend Update" anchor

Writers

Prior to the start of the season, the show added Alison Gates, Alan Linic, Eli Mandel, and Bowen Yang to the writing staff. Co-head writer Bryan Tucker was promoted to senior writer, while Colin Jost, Michael Che, and Kent Sublette remained as the show's head writers. In March 2019, writer Anna Drezen was promoted to co-writing supervisor, alongside Streeter Seidell, Fran Gillespie, and Sudi Green.
This was the final season for longtime Weekend Update writer Katie Rich, who had previously been a writer on the show since 2013.

Episodes