‘Saturday Night Live’: Will Alec Baldwin return as Donald Trump for final show of 2016?

If feels like for every “Saturday Night Live” since Donald Trump won the Presidential Election earlier this fall, we’ve wondered whether we could be seeing a curtain call for Alec Baldwin’s impersonation of Donald Trump. We’ve said it many times over now, and we do personally believe it: When executive producer Lorne Michaels hired Baldwin, he was likely hedging his bets that the billionaire wasn’t going to be elected. Alec is not a full-time cast member, and there is a reasonable chance that he doesn’t want to spend the next four years coming in to do this character.

With that being said, we at least know Baldwin is likely turning up tonight, judging from the photo that he put on Twitter earlier this morning of himself sporting the famous wig.

Could this time be the last time for this version of the character? We’re of two minds about it. From one vantage point, the end of the year, and in many ways the midseason finale, feels like the perfect time in which to retire this particular character. He did his duty, he made enormous headlines, and he can get while the getting’s good at the moment and nobody (other than Trump) would have terrible things to say about what he did. He’s also a worthy Emmy candidate for the role.

Yet, at the same exact time you can argue that there is value towards at least sticking around until the inauguration in January, since there may be some moments that are extremely ripe with comedy there. Maybe you let Baldwin swear in his Trump, and if he wants to move on after that, you see if either someone from your current cast or someone else out there wants to do it.

Now that we’ve said that, if Alec wants to continue to be Trump, then by all means give it to him. He’s brilliant in the part, and we do wonder if there’s something to him continuing to enjoy it just because he knows that the President-elect hates it so much.

Casey Affleck is the host for tonight’s episode, and you can see more about that over here. We’re just not reporting too much on him because in some ways, neither is NBC. They haven’t even released a promo featuring him and a cast member — just one featuring him and musical guest Chance the Rapper from a little bit earlier on in the week. (Photo: NBC.)