'SNL' Debuts New Donald Trump, Mocks Aaron Rodgers in Fox News Cold Open

By Daniel S. Levine

Saturday Night Live returned from its first break of Season 47 with another cold open skewering the political controversies of the week. The vehicle for the parody was a new episode of Justice with Judge Jeanine, featuring Cecily Strong playing Judge Jeannine. She interviewed Pete Davidson, who played Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Then, new cast member James Austin Johnson got to play former President Donald Trump on the show, taking over for Alec Baldwin and showing off his incredible skills as he ran through two 30-second rundowns.

The interview with Rodgers was a parody of the quarterback's controversial interview on The Pat McAfee Show, in which he confirmed he was not vaccinated against COVID-19 and defended his choice not to do so. "It's my body and my COVID," Davidson's Rodgers said. "I can give it to whoever I want, but suddenly the woke mob is coming after me. It's gotten so bad that State Farm is calling me and they're not even offering me the Rodgers rate."

Strong's Pirro continued to praise Rodgers, especially for his claim that he might go sterile if he got the vaccine, which is "so insane, I'm jealous I didn't say it." Davidson's Rodgers said the most important thing is that he's 7-1, in that of the eight people he's infected, "seven are fine."

After Rodgers, Pirro interviewed Alex Moffat's Glenn Youngkin, who won the race for Virginia Governor earlier this week. Youngkin failed to explain what exactly Critical Race Theory is. Next, Johnson joined as Trump, who took credit for Youngkin's victory even though Youngkin wanted to prove he could win without Trump. Then Trump took credit for everything good about Star Wars and Dune before he finally got back to mentioning Virginia. "I keep my ears sealed so nothing comes in or out," Johnson's Trump said. 

This week's episode was hosted by Kieran Culkin, who plays Roman Roy on HBO's acclaimed Succession. This was his first time as host, although he made a cameo on the show back in November 1991 when his older brother Macaulay Culkin hosted around the release of Home Alone. Ed Sheeran was Culkin's musical guest, marking the singer's first appearance since February 2017 and third overall appearance.

Saturday Night Live will be back on Nov. 13 with another first-time host, Jonathan Majors, whose musical guest will be Taylor Swift. Simu Liu will host the Nov. 20 episode with Saweetie as the musical performer. New SNL episodes air at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC.

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