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