{"id":565483,"date":"2026-04-05T05:51:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T05:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/565483\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T05:51:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T05:51:07","slug":"snl-cold-iopen-mixes-ncaa-final-four-pam-boni-firing-to-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/565483\/","title":{"rendered":"SNL Cold IOpen Mixes NCAA Final Four & Pam Boni Firing To Success"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIt took a while to get there, but like its newly(ish) launched SNL<\/a> UK cousin<\/a>, SNL went for a very political cold open tonight.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe skit started out drilling down on NCAA<\/a> Division I men\u2019s basketball tournament\u2019s Final Four before deftly segueing \u00a0to the April 2 firing<\/a> of Pam Bondi<\/a>. \u201cI made history as the first woman ever to be fired as Attorney General,\u201d the Ashley Padilla<\/a> portrayed ex-AG lamented. \u201cI shattered that glass exit door\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOf course, this being another victim of Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s self-preservation syndrome, Bondi\u2019s exit wasn\u2019t pretty or sentimental.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThey threw my headshot in the trash like it was the Epstein Files,\u201d complained Padilla\u2019s Bondi, surrounded by Kenan Thompson<\/a>\u2019s Charles Barkley and other cast mates as TBS sports talking heads. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou could work a sports,\u201d Thompson\u2019s spot-on take on the outspoken NBA legend countered to the unemployed Bondi. \u201cI mean, you already look like a woman\u2019s basketball coach who got suspended for pulling on a player\u2019s braid,\u201d he added in a very timely and funny reference (IYKYK).<\/p>\n

\n\tIn fact, moving faster than many a SNL cold open of late, tonight\u2019s over 5-minute start was full of timely references, as well as some welcomed and rare ducks and weaves. Among the quips, Thompson\u2019s Barkley tossed in the war in Iran, a cross-dressing political spouse, and the ongoing Artemis II mission to orbit the Moon, All of which, especially backing into the Bondi firing via some March Madness, made the first cold open of April 2026 one of hottest cold opens in ages.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt also proved again that Padilla is full-on MVP for SNL, especially when teamed with the genius of king vet Thompson.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo, Lorne, why don\u2019t you upgrade her to a Repertory player ASAP, or at least before the season is over? <\/p>\n

\n\tCertainly in a week that saw Bondi pink slipped as Attorney General, the birthright citizenship obsessed Trump become the first sitting POTUS to show up for a SCOTUS oral argument and JD Vance and Pete Hegseth being JD Vance and Pete Hegseth, the Lorne Michaels<\/a> created show had a lot to pick from when it came to the starter skit. Traditionally pulling from the political headlines this 51st season week after week, there was also the chopper fly-over of Kid Rock<\/a>\u2019s self-described \u201cSouthern White House\u201d and the cross-dressing revelations of ex-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem<\/a> to entertain us as the wars in Iran and Ukraine rage on<\/p>\n

\n\tBack for the first time in three weeks and up against some March Madness hangovers, tonight\u2019s Saturday Night Live<\/a> sees Jack Black back as host for the seminal fifth time. There\u2019s a Jack as the NBC<\/a> late-nighter\u2019s musical guest this weekend, with Jack White six-stringing it on the show for the sixth time.<\/p>\n

\n\tColman Domingo is hosting next week, with Anita as musical guest. Bets on some Trump blast radius will kick the whole thing off. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It took a while to get there, but like its newly(ish) launched SNL UK cousin, SNL went for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[124067,12,88,89423,61007,4801,68284,1254,398,3131,12015,116744,241000,12016,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-565483","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-ashley-padilla","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-kenan-thompson","12":"tag-kid-rock","13":"tag-kristi-noem","14":"tag-lorne-michaels","15":"tag-nbc","16":"tag-ncaa","17":"tag-pam-bondi","18":"tag-saturday-night-live","19":"tag-saturday-night-live-cold-open","20":"tag-saturday-night-live-uk","21":"tag-snl","22":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}