Saturday Night Live's season 51 premiere has been met with widespread disappointment from viewers, who criticised the show's political sketches as unfunny. The cold open featured James Austin Johnson reprising his role as Donald Trump, alongside Colin Jost as Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Jost portrayed Hegseth as a boozed-up frat commander, joking: 'Our military will now have the same rules as any good frat party. No fat chicks, and if you're a fat dude, god damn it, you better be funny as hell!' Johnson's Trump referenced pressure from the FCC over comments Jimmy Kimmel made about Charlie Kirk and alluded to a 2003 birthday letter the president allegedly wrote to Jeffrey Epstein.
Viewers took to social media to express their dissatisfaction. One user posted: 'Well SNL starts out with a big swing and miss on their cold open. I get they don't like Trump but I didn't know they also don't like jokes.' Another added: 'Wow, they really showed him. SNL used to be funny.' A third commented: 'I'm afraid SNL is at its lowest point, maybe time to say goodbye.'
The episode, hosted by Bad Bunny, also included a Weekend Update segment where Michael Che referenced peace talks between Israel and Hamas, joking that 'you could tell Trump wrote the plan himself' before showing a photo of a poem allegedly written to Epstein. Johnson also joked about a mysterious bruise on Trump's hand, saying: 'Not looking great right now. Gonna cover this up for the rest of my life.'
The cold open concluded with a joke about illegal immigration, targeting Latino cast member Marcello Hernández. Despite the political focus, many fans felt the sketches fell short, with one user calling Colin Jost's Hegseth 'awful' and predicting Bad Bunny would 'flop again'.
