New 'SNL' Not on Tonight, NBC Re-Airing Adele Episode Instead

It's Saturday, and that means Saturday Night Live will be on tonight. However, there will not be a new episode to close out the year. Instead, NBC will re-air the Adele episode at 11:30 p.m. ET. There will not be any new episodes of SNL until late January.

The last new episode aired last Saturday, Dec. 19, which featured Kristen Wiig as the host and Dua Lupa as the musical guest. That morning, Jim Carrey revealed that he would no longer portray Joe Biden, and fans saw a new Biden during the cold open last week: cast member Alex Moffat.

"Though my term was only meant to be 6 weeks, I was thrilled to be elected as your SNL President...comedy's highest call of duty," Carey wrote on Twitter. "I would love to go forward knowing that Biden was the victor because I nailed that s—. But I am just one in a long line of proud, fighting SNL Bidens!"

The 46th season of SNL began airing on Oct. 3 with Chris Rock as the host and Megan Thee Stallion as the musical guest for the season premiere. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the show has a limited number of studio audience members at Studio 8H at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. Season 45 of SNL had to be cut short because of COVID-19 concerns.

"Well, there's the sheer physical challenge of what we can do within protocols," SNL creator Lorne Michaels said in an interview with Vulture. "We've been getting support from the governor's office, which is important because the audience is a huge part of it. Also, us coming back and accomplishing the show will lead to — I hate to use the word normalcy — but it's a thing that is part of our lives coming back, in whatever form it ends up coming back."

Michaels talked about SNL's view on politics and how they approach it in each episode. "There are a lot of writers, a lot of differing points of view," he said. "And the show's tried really hard to not just be a partisan voice, but to be clear-headed about it. Over the years, I've had, obviously, complaints from both parties. People feel things are unfair, and I understand that. But if we're taking shots, I hope we're taking clean shots."