Jon Hamm joined host Miles Teller for the cold open of tonight’s season premiere of Saturday Night Live (1 October).
The Mad Men and Confess Fletch starplayed himself in the sketch, which spoofed ESPN’s football analysis show ManningCast. Teller was cast as Payton Manning while SNL regular Andrew Dismukes appeared as his brother Eli Manning.
After a one-line cameo from snowboarder Shawn White, Hamm poked fun at Teller by claiming the show sometimes resorted to stunt casting. “Sometimes they need to bring in a real celebrity when the host isn't that famous,” he commented. “I mean, when they couldn't get the star of the big summer movie, your Tom Cruise or your Jon Hamm, they had to get the co-star.”
Teller starred alonside Cruise and Hamm in this year’s Top Gun: Maverick.
The self-referential routine also featured the characters offering a scathing assessment of a sketch set at Mar-A-Lago, with James Austin Johnson starring as former President Donald Trump. “Oh good, a Trump sketch,” joked Teller. “Way to mix it up.”
The sketch directly addressed the major cast shake-up that took place at Saturday Night Live over the summer. When Teller lamented that there were no impressions of Anthony Fauci, Lindsey Graham or Rudy Giuliano, Dismukes pointed out that: “Those were all Kate McKinnon.”
McKinnon was one of eight cast members to leave SNL prior to this episode. Aidy Bryant, Pete Davidson. Alex Moffat, Kyle Mooney, Chris Redd, Melissa Villaseñor and Aristotle Athari also departed.
New additions include Marcello Hernandez, Molly Kearney, Michael Longfellow and Devon Walker.
