‘Saturday Night Live’ alum Cheri Oteri explains absence during 40th Anniversary Special

There were clearly quite a few people out there who wanted to see Cheri Oteri appear during the “Saturday Night Live” 40th Anniversary Special earlier in the weekend. After all, she happened to be one of the most popular cast members during a certain period in history, and it made sense that she would be there alongside Eddie Murphy, Bill Murray, and the dozens of other great cast members that were there.

However, Oteri’s absence was not due to her being snubbed by NBC or executive producer Lorne Michaels in any way. Instead, it was a little bit more of a direct response to her own schedule. As she told Andy Cohen on “Watch What Happens Live!” this week, she originally had other commitments that were keeping her from doing anything for the show. Eventually, those commitments started to free up a little bit … but not before we got to a point where it was too late for her to really do much of anything with the show.

Of course, that is a shame, but it is nice to get a little more insight into how this all came about. We like to think that Lorne put in a call to almost every notable cast member to ever be a part of the show, and then the ones who were able to show up ultimately did.

Just for fun, the video below does still show her doing a few of her signature characters, which we always appreciate … even if this is probably the sort of thing that she gets asked to do on the street a billion times a day.

Did you miss Cheri on the special? Share with a comment below, and head over here if you want to get some further TV updates on everything we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: NBC.)

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