| Season Number: | 43 |
| Bgcolour: |
|
| Num Episodes: | 21 |
| Network: | NBC |
| Prev Season: | season 42 |
| Next Season: | season 44 |
| Episode List: | List of Saturday Night Live episodes |
The forty-third season of the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live premiered on September 30, 2017, during the 2017–2018 television season with host Ryan Gosling and musical guest Jay-Z, and concluded on May 19, 2018, with host Tina Fey and musical guest Nicki Minaj.[1] Like the final four episodes of season 42, season 43 was broadcast live in all four time zones within the contiguous United States, with the exception of the Natalie Portman/Dua Lipa episode due to the network's commitment to the NFL.[2]
Prior to the start of the season, longtime cast members Vanessa Bayer, Bobby Moynihan, and Sasheer Zamata all left the show after seven, nine, and four seasons, respectively.[3] [4] Following Bayer, Moynihan, and Zamata's departures, the show hired three new featured players: comedian and writer Heidi Gardner of The Groundlings, iO Chicago alum Luke Null, and stand-up comedian Chris Redd, who previously did sketch comedy at Second City.[5] Redd had been incorrectly reported as joining the cast during the previous season.[6]
Mikey Day, Alex Moffat, and Melissa Villaseñor continued as featured players.
With this announcement came the confirmation that the rest of the cast from the previous season would return, including guest star Alec Baldwin in his role as President Donald Trump.[7] [8]
With his return, Kenan Thompson surpassed Darrell Hammond's record as the longest-tenured cast member in the show's history, with a total of fifteen seasons compared to Hammond's fourteen seasons from 1995–2009.[9]
This is the only season for Luke Null, who was let go after the season's end.[10]
Repertory Players
Featured Players
bold denotes "Weekend Update" anchor
Prior to the start of the season, the show added Steven Castillo, Andrew Dismukes, Claire Friedman, Sam Jay, Erik Marino, Nimesh Patel, and Gary Richardson to the writing staff.
Also prior to the season, head writers Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider (who had written for the show overall since 2011, and were named as head writers at the start of the previous season) departed the show, leaving Kent Sublette and Bryan Tucker as the sole head writers for the first-half of the season.[11] Weekend Update writer Katie Rich (who was previously suspended midway through last season for a controversial Tweet about Barron Trump) was brought back to the writing staff with the Weekend Update: Summer Edition episodes, and officially returned as a writer this season.[12] Additionally, beginning with this season, Weekend Update writers were credited separately from the rest of the writing staff.
At the start of the season, writer Streeter Seidell (who joined the writing staff in 2014) was named as the season's sole writing supervisor.[13]
On December 12, 2017, Jost and Che were named co-head writers, making Che the first African American head writer.[14] Jost was previously the head writer for 3 years from 2012 to 2015.
With the same episode, writers Fran Gillespie and Sudi Green (who had both joined the writing staff in 2015) were named as the co-writing supervisors alongside Seidell.[15]
This was the final season for longtime segment director/writer Dave McCary (who had overall been with the show since 2013), as he left the show after five years.[16] This was Tucker's final season as head writer (a role he previously had for 4½ seasons, starting in 2014), as he would be named a Senior Writer, at the start of the next season. This was also the only season for Friedman, Marino, and Patel.
See main article: List of Saturday Night Live episodes.