Saturday Night Live (season 40)
| Saturday Night Live (season 40) | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes | 21 |
| Release | |
| Original network | NBC |
| Original release | September 27, 2014 – May 16, 2015 |
| Season chronology | |
Saturday Night Live premiered its fortieth season during the 2014–15 television season on NBC. The season premiered on September 27, 2014, with host Chris Pratt and musical guest Ariana Grande and came to a conclusion on May 16, 2015 with host Louis C.K. and musical guest Rihanna. Former cast member Darrell Hammond succeeded Don Pardo, who had died in August, as the show's new announcer. The premiere included an interstitial photograph of Pardo – SNL's announcer since it premiered in 1975 (with the exception of season 7 and episode 14 of season 21 – where Hammond took his place).
As part of an ongoing rebuilding process, which producer Lorne Michaels indicated would result in cast changes for the 2014–15 season, a number of changes were announced: Nasim Pedrad departed after five seasons to star on the Lorne Michaels-produced sitcom Mulaney, while John Milhiser, Noël Wells, and Brooks Wheelan were let go after a single season. Additionally, Mike O'Brien, a writer for the show for four seasons before joining the cast at the start of the previous season, returned to the writers' room.
Two comedians joined the cast at the start of the season: stand-up comic Pete Davidson, the first SNL cast member to have been born in the 1990s, and former SNL writer Michael Che as a Weekend Update co-anchor, replacing Cecily Strong, who remains in the cast. Che left SNL at the end of the previous season to become a correspondent on The Daily Show. After making appearances on Weekend Update and in several sketches, writer Leslie Jones was promoted to the cast on October 20, 2014 as a featured player.
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