First on LateNighter: Add Chloe Fineman to SNL50‘s sick list. The sixth-year Saturday Night Live repertory player has revealed that she’s contracted COVID.
“This. Is. So. Annoying.” Fineman wrote atop an image of two COVID-postive tests in an Instagram story Tuesday night.
Given the timing, it would seem she’s not likely to make this weekend’s SNL, the show’s first regular live episode since January 25th.
In a subsequent (and since deleted) follow-up post Wednesday morning, Fineman said that it was her first time contracting COVID since 2020, and described her symptoms as alternating between feeling like it’s “just a cold” to getting faint doing simple tasks in her apartment like getting up to look in the refrigerator.
Fineman is the latest to SNL50 attendee to reveal she’s fallen ill.
Late last week we learned that SNL cast member Laraine Newman had contracted the flu. The founding Not Ready for Primetime Player posted a photo Friday morning of flu medication and an inhaler to Instagram, captioning the post simply “SNL50.”
And Maya Rudolph and Martin Short both contracted COVID shortly after being photographed greeting each other with a kiss on the lips at the show’s anniversary special. (“The SNL 50th Covid curse is real,” Steve Martin captioned the photo.)
Indeed, Colin Jost delivered a prescient joke during SNL50‘s “Weekend Update” segment about the potential for the special to become a superspreader.
“Health experts are facing increased pressure this winter in the face of outbreaks of COVID, the flu, RSV, and norovirus, which they’re calling a ‘quad-demic,’” Jost said. “So we did the smart thing and packed every beloved entertainer over 60 into one tiny space.”
At least Fineman, who is well under 60, can console herself knowing she’s in good company.
Saturday Night Live returns with the first of two new episodes this coming Saturday March 1st, with host Shane Gillis and musical guest Tate McRae.
(Updated Wednesday morning with Fireman’s description of her symptoms.)
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