Kenan Thompson, Kate McKinnon & More ‘SNL’ Stars Branching Out on TV

Kenan Thompson Show NBC
Ron Batzdorff/NBC
Kenan

Mr. Mayor costar Bobby Moynihan isn’t the only Saturday Night Live actor, past or present, branching out.

In the sitcom Kenan (February, NBC), Kenan Thompson plays a widower juggling the pressures of hosting Atlanta’s second-place morning show with raising two daughters (Dani and Dannah Lockett) and managing a meddling father-in-law (Don Johnson) and a permanent-houseguest brother (Chris Redd).

“Weekend Update” cohost Michael Che stars in a still-untitled sketch series (Spring, HBO Max) examining topics like police brutality, unemployment and romance from a Black perspective. In the comedy Chad (TBA, TBS), Nasim Pedrad channels the awkward adolescence of a Persian-American boy embarking on a desperate mission: achieving popularity as a high school freshman.

Kate McKinnon gets serious in The Dropout (TBA, Hulu) as disgraced Elizabeth Holmes, whose billion-dollar business Theranos came crashing down after she was charged with fraud. Tina Fey produces Girls5eva (TBA, Peacock), about the members of a one-hit-wonder singing group who reunite as adults.

Chad Nasim Pedrad TBS

Chad (Credit: TBS)

Will Forte returns as the calamity-causing wannabe-hero MacGruber (TBA, Peacock). Cecily Strong and Keegan-Michael Key headline the tune-filled comedy Schmigadoon! (TBA, Apple TV+), playing a couple trapped in a magical town where everyone acts as if they’re in a 1940s musical; Fred Armisen costars.