Saturday Night Live Winter 2010 Season – A Look Ahead

It’s been a somewhat difficult year for Saturday Night Live. Fair to say that the show experienced a widespread revival in 2008, and this was mostly due to the presidential election.

Most notably, Tina Fey’s portrayal of Sarah Palin was both spot on and uproarious. Her clips were watched by eager viewers nearly every week, and they became viral on the web as well.

2009 proved to be more difficult for the show due to a lack of plausible material like this. Perhaps the most memorable moments occurred while Taylor Swift hosted the show, where she performed a solo guitar song that poked fun at Kanye West.

Still, there weren’t many other great moments that transpired during the course of the Fall 2009 season. The Barack Obama impersonations are good, though not great, and the show lost two of its actors in Casey Wilson and Michaela Watkins.

Going into 2010, the first week of programming should be an exciting one, and it may be just what Saturday Night Live needs in order to stage another revival and recapture its glory.

Charles Barkley will be kicking things off as the host of SNL for his second time. Barkley, who maintains a regular spot on TNT’s NBA coverage, is one of the most entertaining figures on television and his stint as host during the show’s season premiere should be interesting to say the least.

Alicia Keys will complement Barkley’s acting when she comes aboard as the musical guest during the episode, giving SNL two spotlight guests that should spark the interest of many.

During the following week, Sigourney Weaver will host the show, with the Ting Tings performing as the show’s musical act.

Let’s hope that these two weeks are the beginning of a great season of sketch comedy. This show at its best is one of the best on television.