{"id":127180,"date":"2025-09-08T06:31:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T06:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/127180\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T06:31:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T06:31:07","slug":"scarlett-johansson-confirms-colin-jost-returning-to-snl-weekend-update-exclusive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/127180\/","title":{"rendered":"Scarlett Johansson confirms Colin Jost returning to ‘SNL’ ‘Weekend Update’ (exclusive)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amid a flood of Saturday Night Live<\/a> cast changes and rampant rumors about even more, fans can breathe a sigh of relief that one longtime cast staple will be back as Scarlett Johansson<\/a> confirms hubby Colin Jost<\/a> will be back for season 51.\n<\/p>\n

“He’s going back to work,” the actress tells Entertainment Weekly at the 2025\u00a0Toronto International Film Festival<\/a>, where she is promoting her directorial debut, Eleanor the Great, starring June Squibb<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Marvel star couldn’t say if that meant she’d also be back for another infamous “Weekend Update” joke swap<\/a> with Jost and co-anchor Michael Che<\/a> as she usually gets asked last minute. “I think that’s basically the MO over at 30 Rock is that everything is like moments before,” she explains. “It’s usually like Friday night before the Saturday show.”\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Together, Jost and Che are the longest-tenured “Weekend Update” duo, while Jost holds the record for most time as anchor after taking his place behind the desk in 2014 during the latter half of season 39, following the departure of Seth Meyers<\/a>. Cecily Strong<\/a> co-anchored with Jost during those episodes before Che took over the seat at the start of season 40.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

While it is not yet confirmed that Che will be joining Jost behind the news desk, it’s hard to imagine one moving on without the other. EW has reached out to reps for SNL, Jost, and Che.\n<\/p>\n

Jost himself is the fourth-longest-serving cast member in\u00a0SNL’s\u00a050-year history, after\u00a0Kenan Thompson<\/a>\u00a0(22),\u00a0Darrell Hammond<\/a>\u00a0(14), and Meyers (12 and a half). This will be his 12th season on the cast, after starting as a writer in 2005.<\/p>\n

Although Jost’s presence on SNL will remain, there will be plenty of other changes when the legendary NBC sketch show returns on Oct. 4. So far, cast members Heidi Gardner<\/a>, Devon Walker<\/a>, Michael Longfellow<\/a>, and featured player Emil Wakim<\/a> have all been confirmed as not returning, and three writers have revealed their departures, including “Update” scribe Rosebud Baker. Meanwhile, five new cast members have been added<\/a>: Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane, Kam Patterson, Veronika Slowikowska, and Please Don’t Destroy member Ben Marshall<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

Someone else Johansson would love to see on SNL this season is her Eleanor the Great leading lady. “Yes, 100 percent,” she answers when EW asks if she would campaign for Squibb to host. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n

At 95, the Thelma<\/a> star would shatter the record for oldest SNL host currently held by the late Betty White<\/a>, who MCed the show at 88 back in 2010.\n<\/p>\n

And Squibb is fully on board. “Oh yes, of course.\u00a0I love that show. I watch it all the time,” she says when asked if she would like to host, revealing she has a resume for it after doing a cabaret act in New York for about 10 years. “It was a little comedy thing,” she says.\n<\/p>\n

Johansson knows a thing or two about what makes a great SNL host<\/a>, having done so herself a total of seven times so far, including last May’s season 50 finale<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost on June 23, 2025.<\/p>\n

Jamie McCarthy\/Getty\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sign up for\u00a0Entertainment Weekly’s\u00a0free daily newsletter<\/a>\u00a0to get breaking news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.\n<\/p>\n

Johansson and Jost first met in 2006 when she hosted SNL for the first time and he was a writer, but they didn’t start dating until 2017. The couple got engaged in May 2019 and married the next year. Johansson and Jost share one son together. She also shares one child with ex-husband Romain Dauriac.<\/p>\n

Eleanor the Great, about a 90-year-old woman rebuilding her life after the death of her best friend, hits theaters on Sept. 26. Saturday Night Live season 51 premieres Saturday, Oct. 4 at 11:30 p.m. ET\/8:30 p.m. PT on NBC and Peacock.\n<\/p>\n

With reporting by Gerrad Hall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amid a flood of Saturday Night Live cast changes and rampant rumors about even more, fans can breathe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-127180","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}