Druski hosts SNL as Talarico crashes Trump's post-election cold open

Cold open turns to the midterm results

Saturday Night Live opened its episode on Saturday, 7 November, with a sketch about the Democrats' gains in the midterm elections held on Tuesday, 3 November. Kenan Thompson and Sarah Sherman played Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, who toast their party's success with champagne while promising to confront the president. James Austin Johnson's Trump then arrives, says he accepted the results, and turns his attention to renovations of the White House ballroom. Colin Jost played Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Jeremy Culhane played Vice President JD Vance, who tries to steal the spotlight from his boss. The sketch treats the Democratic sweep, which gave the party control of both the House and the Senate, as the main news of the week.

Talarico crashes the sketch

Texas senator-elect James Talarico broke into the end of the cold open, and the audience applauded for about 20 seconds, according to The Independent. Talarico won the Texas Senate race with more than half the vote, beating Ken Paxton and flipping the seat to Democrats for the first time since 1988. In the sketch he interrupted Johnson's Trump, who had been speaking about his election loss, and pitched a plan to work together on life for everyday Americans. Johnson's Trump had earlier mocked him with the nickname Talafreako while listing nicknames for newly elected Democratic senators. The cameo gave the sketch its most energetic moment, and the supporting cast's freezing bit behind Johnson's Trump, a recurring feature of the show, appeared in the same segment.

Druski's hosting debut

Comedian Druski hosted the episode and claimed to be the first internet content creator to host the show. The Guardian called that claim not entirely accurate, because previous hosts Issa Rae and Quinta Brunson had also built social media audiences before landing TV shows. Druski's self-described skits have amassed millions of followers on Instagram and YouTube, and he has a multiyear deal with Netflix. In a spoof of the Nathan Fielder documentary You Can See Everything, he played Elizabeth Holmes in whiteface. Emma Stone joined him onstage for a short bit of banter, and The Strokes performed as musical guest.

Critics split on the episode

Vulture called the episode middling, saying Druski had enthusiasm but struggled with live sketch timing and flubbed lines from the monologue onward. The critic found the strongest moments in the pre-taped segments, which were closer to Druski's internet work than the live sketches. The Guardian called the episode low-energy and wrote that the show's post-election material did not match the scale of the results. The Guardian also questioned whether Druski's viral style, which includes cursing and whiteface, fits the show's traditions.

Musk impression and other targets

TechCrunch highlighted a new impression of Elon Musk by Culhane, who played the SpaceX and Tesla CEO as an awkward figure trying to befriend the Weekend Update hosts. The sketch came in a week when Musk had spent half a billion dollars on candidates who lost in the midterms and announced plans to halt Cybertruck production, according to TechCrunch. Colin Jost, playing the Weekend Update co-host, pressed Musk on the tax consequences of Texas now being run by Democrats. The show also aimed at tech executives this season, with earlier impressions of Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and data center backer Kevin O'Leary.