‘Saturday Night Live’ promotes Colin Jost to join Cecily Strong on ‘Weekend Update’

Ready for some “Saturday Night Live” controversy? Then here you go: Rather than have Cecily Strong serve as the sole anchor on “Weekend Update” moving forward past the exit of Seth Meyers, the show is instead promoting someone else from within to take on the role. The twist? This person is actually not someone who currently appears on-camera.

According to a report from Deadline, Colin Jost has been tapped to co-host this portion of the show following Meyers’ departure on February 1, and his first show is going to be in March. Jost is the third straight head writer after Meyers and Tina Fey to take on the honor of being in the co-anchor’s chair, and from that standpoint, it certainly makes a little bit of sense to have him there.

Really, the only major point of “controversy” here comes courtesy of why it was felt necessarily to ensure that Strong continued to have a co-anchor at all. Couldn’t she have just continued to anchor the show on her own? While she has more of a sketch than stand-up background, which is important here since “Weekend Update” is mostly about jokes with the occasional comedy bit added in, she has proven herself worthy.

Then again, we have a hard time really questioning too much any move that “SNL” has made over the years. These are the same people who have made stars out of Kristen Wiig, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, and so many other great performers. We’ll assume that they know what they are doing here, and this is not some sort of decision that was just made willy-nilly without any real thought behind it.

For those curious, Jost is responsible in part already for some great “SNL” moments and characters, including Strong’s sensation from last year in The Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started a Conversation with at a Party.

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Photo: NBC