SNL's Colin Jost to Join Cecily Strong as New 'Weekend Update' Anchor

By: Jan. 23, 2014
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Lorne Michaels has announced that SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE's Colin Jost will join Cecily Strong as the new co-anchor of the show's popular segment 'Weekend Update,' according to Deadline.

Jost will take over on March 1, replacing current anchor Seth Meyers who will Exit the show to take over the reins of Jimmy Fallon's late night talk show. Meyers will make his last appearance on the long-running sketch comedy on February 1.

Jost is one of the youngest writers to work on SNL, joining the staff at the age of 22 in 2005. The comic is a graduate of Harvard University where he served as president of the Harvard Lampoon. In 2012 he was named head writer.

Among Jost's most recent sketches include We Did Stop music video about the government shutdown featuring Miley Cyrus, the 50 Shades Of Grey screen test and the opening skit with host Kerry Washington. In addition, he has penned lines for Weekend Update regulars including Drunk Uncle, The Girl You Wish You Hadn't Started a Conversation With at a Party (who was plated by Strong) and Second-hand news correspondent Anthony Crispino.

Since his time on the show, he has collected three WGA Awards, a Peabody Award, and eight Emmy nominations. He has also performed stand-up on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, John Oliver's New York Stand-Up Show, and the Just for Laughs comedy festivals in Montreal and Chicago.

About SNL:

"Saturday Night Live," NBC's Emmy Award-winning late-night comedy showcase, enters its 39th season in September for another year of laughs, surprises and great performances.

Since its inception in 1975, "SNL" has launched the careers of many of the brightest comedy performers of their generation. As The New York Times noted on the occasion of the show's Emmy-winning 25th Anniversary special in 1999, "in Defiance of both time and show business convention, 'SNL' is still the most pervasive influence on the art of comedy in contemporary culture." At the close of the century, "Saturday Night Live" placed seventh on Entertainment Weekly's list of the Top 100 Entertainers of the past fifty years.

The program has won 40 Emmy Awards and now holds the title for the most nominated television show in Emmy HISTORY with 156 nominations. "SNL" has been honored twice, in 1990 and 2009, with the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award and cited as "truly a national institution." "Saturday Night Live" was inducted into the Broadcasting Hall of Fame by the National Association of Broadcasters, and the show continues to garner the highest ratings of any late-night television program, entertaining millions each week.

"SNL" sketches still bear repeating on Monday mornings. With live show surprises, especially those timed to the election - from Barack Obama's surprise walk-on, Hillary Clinton's performance opposite Amy Poehler and Senator John McCain's "Weekend Update" appearance - "SNL" is making headlines and influencing the political dialogue while skewering it at the same time. Beyond politics, the show's cast of recurring characters and its take on pop culture targets remain spot-on. The addition of the show's Emmy Award-winning SNL Digital Shorts continues to keep the show as current today as it was when it debuted.

"Saturday Night Live," which premiered October 11, 1975, is broadcast live from NBC's famed Studio 8H in New York City's Rockefeller Center. The program is a production of Broadway Video in association with SNL Studios. Lorne Michaels is the executive producer.



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