In what’s already a monumental year for Saturday Night Live at large, the show’s “Weekend Update” team is celebrating an anniversary of their own today—just ahead of the show’s 50th season premiere. Colin Jost and Michael Che made their debut as a duo 10 years ago today.
On September 27, 2014, Che joined Jost behind the “Update” desk as co-anchor for the first time. Jost, however, had a head start on Che.
Jost first became an anchor after Seth Meyers departed the show midway through the previous season, and hosted the weekly segment alongside Cecily Strong. SNL swapped out Strong for Che ahead of the Season 40 premiere.
Giving Jost the gig was a somewhat unusual move for the show at the time. The comedian was working as a head writer, but wasn’t in the show’s cast. The last time a “Weekend Update” anchor had been plucked from a non-cast role was when Brian Doyle-Murray took over the position in 1981. (And even he had experience as a one-season cast member a couple years earlier.)
Che’s ascendancy was unusual in its own way. After starting as a guest writer on SNL in 2013, he left the show the following year to become a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. After only three months at Comedy Central, Che was offered the “Update” gig and returned to SNL.
WATCH: Colin Jost and Michael Che anchored their first joint "Weekend Update" on Saturday Night Live ten years ago today, September 27, 2014. #SNL pic.twitter.com/qNr9H8i3RW
— LateNighter (@latenightercom) September 27, 2024
Looking back on the pair’s first segment together, it’s clear how much they’ve grown. Che stumbles over his line as he kicks off the segment’s first joke.
Che recalled that nervousness in a 2021 interview with Howard Stern. “I don’t really know how to do this, and I don’t even know if I want to do this, really,” he recalled thinking at the time. “But you don’t say no to an opportunity to do it. Or an opportunity to even try to do it.”
“For even the first year or so of doing ‘Update,’ I was still trying to do Seth’s ‘Update,’” he added. “I had to learn how to just do what I wanted to do. And then the writers learned how to write for me in that way, and I think that’s when ‘Update’ started to maybe click.”
Jost and Che have certainly made the segment their own over the past 10 years. In fact, earlier this month they even told Stern that they’ll probably leave as a team when that day finally comes.
But that day’s not here yet. Jost and Che kick off their eleventh season as a “Weekend Update” team when SNL returns tomorrow, September 28.
