‘SNL’ Cold Open: Ted Cruz and Gina Carano Get Time to Apologize in Britney Spears Sketch

Saturday Night Live cold open tackled this month’s buzzy stories in a talk show sketch hosted by Britney Spears (Chloe Fineman). Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who took an ill-advised trip to Cancun while his home state faced deadly snowstorms and power outages, was another target of the cold open. SNL mainstay Aidy Bryant portrayed the politician as he had a chance to apologize, but he didn’t do a great job.

The show was titled Oops You Did It Again, which Spears started so people “can come on and apologize for things they have done wrong.” It turns out that after the Framing Britney Spears documentary, Spears started receiving thousands of apologies. The first guest was Cruz, which prompted Spears to recount all the things he did wrong with his Cancun trip. “Now I’m in a bit of hot water, which I’m told is a thing no one in Texas has,” Cruz said. Spears gave Cruz a chance to apologize, but he is bad at “human stuff.” Spears went on to slam Cruz for blaming his daughters for the trip. “As someone who is often blamed for other people’s problems at a young age, maybe leave your daughters out of it because it could really mess with their heads,” Spears.

Next, Spears brought on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (Pete Davidson), who had to apologize for counting nursing home coronavirus deaths as hospital deaths. Cuomo did not think he needed to apologize at first, but Spears finally convinced him to. Spears then took a question from a fan which seemed simple, asking her if she was ok. However, Spears had to give a convoluted answer, in which she had to deny sending subliminal messages in her videos. At that moment, “#FreeBritney” flashed on the screen.

Spears’ last guest was Gina Carano (Cecily Strong), who was fired from The Mandalorian for her anti-Semitic and racist social media posts. She didn’t think she did anything wrong. Spears then had to explain what she did wrong. Cerano thinks she was the victim of cancel culture. Cruz thought she was in the same boat as Carano, but she did not want to be associated with the “pile of soup” that is Cruz.

After using Super Bowl Sunday as an opportunity for a cold open that did not center on politics, SNL went right back to its favorite subject last week. That cold open was structured like an episode of Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show, with Alex Moffatt playing Carlson. During the segment, Carlson interviewed Sens. Lindsey Graham (Kate McKinnon) and Cruz about President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial, which ended in an acquittal on Feb. 13. Trump was charged with inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, during Congress’ certification of President Joe Biden’s victory. The sketch also parodied the performances of Trump’s defense lawyers, Bruce Castor (Mickey Day) and Marich Van Der Been (Pete Davidson).

This week’s SNL was hosted by Bridgerton star Rege-Jean Page, with musical guest Bad Bunny. The next episode on Feb. 27 will feature Nick Jonas as host and musical guest, timed with the release of his new single, “Spaceman.” Jonas is yet another first-time host, although he was the musical guest for the April 16, 2016 episode. SNL airs weekly at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC.