Also, I've never seen newly-hired featured players make more of an impact with TV time in their rookie year than Mikey Day and Alex Moffat. And they're really good utility guys too. That guy from last year may have had one role I remembered the entire season, but I can remember a bunch of appearances by Day and Moffat.

Agree with those last 3 posts. I didn't see all sketches, but this episode seemed a bit too much wanting to show off and actually not being so good.

SNL hasn't been watched this most since the 94-95 season (The OJ Simpson Trial, but one of the most horribly reviewed seasons in retrospect) Unlike that year where everyone was leaving or fired, anyone here now has to love it. I mean I haven't heard of a non political sketch this year. (And it is mostly Baldwin and McCarthy TBH)

Kate is fantastic and we know, but is the rest of the cast up to par now?

Has it been officially announced that Rosie is out? She'd make for a perfect addition.

Kate = Sessions.
McCarthy = Spicer.
Rosie = Bannon.

SNL did make it clear that they're not willing to have Leslie Jones take over the Trump impersonation.

Rosie isn't officially out, but I think it's unlikely Lorne will go for it. He reminds me of someone that doesn't bow to audience anticipation like that.

Zach Braff wants to play Stephen Miller, even willing to shave his head. To me, it would border on stunt casting if they go for celebs rather than their actual cast. I was not a fan of Baldwin taking over Trump from Darrell Hammond, but it obviously worked in their favour. And Melissa was a nice, unexpected surprise, though it will be overkill if she's back more than once, maybe twice, before the end of the season.

Yet another crappy episode - Poor Octavia Spencer never seemd to get comfortable with the live format. I think this is the most consistently unfunny season of SNL in years.

The highlight was seeing Melissa Villasenor get to break out some of her impressions. Bonus points for doing Kristen Wiig, someone I didn't think had an imitable voice. Too bad I don't think the format of SNL is for Melissa. She doesn't do impersonations that can be used in the cold open or anything beyond an impersonation sketch like last night's.

Major off week for the writers though. Not sure I laughed once. Their strength lately are the pre-taped segments, and had three of them last night and they all sucked.

This was a pretty rough episode. Octavia really gave it her all though.

I thought the bar segment with all the guys being "feminists" was pretty decent.

Marginally better writing in some of the skits last night, but the real difference is Scarlett Johannsen who has enough talentand confidence to actually perform on live TV (eg: talking dog bit).

I can't believe this was Scarlett's 5th time hosting. Her first time was so wooden, she had zero ability to adapt to the live format as far as I remember. Definitely has come along since then. She was a reliable player last night.

I haven't even able to bother reviewing the past two new episodes - SNL has reached one of it's periodic nadirs. It's not the cast's fault - the writing is entirely to blame - it's awful.

Last night's episode was pretty much the show they needed for their big coast-to-coast thing. It had cameos, Trump, McCarthy as Spicer, opening musical number, safe skits (Family Feud, timely United skit) and a musical guest that appeals to the young audience. Of course the writing was subpar, but I don't blame them.

The saddest part of the writing is that last week's best sketch, the clown one, was completely ripped off a Tig Notaro short film.

Tuned in for Styles and McCarthy.

Love the song, didn't like the live performance. McCarthy was gold again. I hope she wins and Emmy.

Chris Pine proved to be a great host, able to wring laughs out of each sketch. Too bad the writing gave him nothing to work with. Even the cold open felt like it should have been on after Weekend Update on a good night.

Saw it, forgot it already.

I watch Morning Joe and that cold open was hilarious

The finale was good. Nothing spectacular. It was alarming to see Bobby Moynihan and Vanessa Bayer more than any other cast member for their final show. Moynihan was a decent player for his run, but too easily forgettable. I don't see him ever getting to host. Bayer was extremely dependable and rarely had a strong starring role in many sketches. There's something about a good utility player though. Just a shame she was always in the shadow of either Kristen Wiig or Kate McKinnon.

Moynihan is my favorite member of the last few seasons, so sad to see him go. I actually think he fitted the format perfectly and I wonder what he's going to do next.

Getting his own comedy on CBS in the fall. Sounds ambitious, especially on the largely-formulaic network.