No matter what else is going on with Saturday Night Live, the fake-news Weekend Update segment is usually reliable. But last year, post-Seth Meyers (one of the best Update anchors ever) was rough. Update was co-anchored by Cecily Strong and SNL head writer Colin Jost, and while Strong is a great performer, Jost is…not. So I feel like I’m imparting bad news when I say that Strong is leaving the Update desk (though she’ll remain on SNL) and Jost is sticking around. But there is good news—Michael Che, the incredibly funny comedian and writer of The Daily Show—is joining Jost on Weekend Update.
Che was a staff writer at SNL last year before leaving to be a correspondent on The Daily Show this summer, but it didn’t seem like we ever saw much of him. He’s tremendously funny, with the kind of perfectly deadpan expressions and laconic delivery that fits into The Daily Show’s MO of absorbing shock when their interview subjects go off the rails. Here’s a recent segment from The Daily Show featuring Che. The way he says “No, not white gangs” KILLS me.
Embed code for Che's Daily Show segment:
God, I can’t wait to have that every week. Che’s really too talented to be sidelined on The Daily Show. This is a great move for him, with tremendous exposure—Update anchors tend to be among the most successful SNL alumni—and he’s also marking a milestone as the first African-American Update anchor. It’s sad it took till 2014 to get there, but at least now SNL seems committed to fixing their diversity problem. And Michael Che will go a long way to fixing their Colin Jost problem.
Here's Che at TIFF at the Top Five premiere last week.
