“I’m Chevy Chase, and also you’re not” was a cute catchphrase to launch Weekend Replace on an unsuspecting nation, but it surely additionally turned out to be prophetic. Whereas the pretend information desk made stars of comedians like Dennis Miller and Norm Macdonald, it has additionally been anchored by performers who, for lack of a greater time period, aren’t any Chevy Chase. And so, nobody would blame you when you can’t keep in mind a single joke from these 5 obscure Weekend Replace anchors.
Gail Matthius
Charles Rocket was the principle Weekend Replace anchor for Season Six, however midway by means of, the present launched Matthius as his co-anchor. Why?
“We want a lady on the market!” Matthius guessed with a shrug throughout a Vulture interview. “It wasn’t like I insisted.”
Whereas the gig didn’t make Matthius a star, she was an eye-witness to Eddie Murphy taking on the present. “I’ve a really clear reminiscence of doing Weekend Replace, and up he slides and does his basketball factor,” she defined. “I used to be wanting over and heard the response from the dwell viewers. I went, ‘Oh, yeah, some shit simply occurred right here. He’s on his method.’ It was astounding as a result of he had such confidence. … I’d seen folks kill, and he killed it. It was undoubtedly a second.”
George McGovern
Season 9 was unusual for a number of causes: The presence of Jim Belushi, altering the title of Weekend Replace to “Saturday Night time Information” and the weird observe of often asking SNL’s visitor host to anchor the information.
George McGovern, the Democratic candidate for president who misplaced in a landslide to Richard Nixon in 1972, was an out-of-left-field option to host within the first place — it will be like Mitt Romney headlining SNL in 2024. Unsurprisingly, McGovern fumbled almost each joke, studying off the teleprompter in a stammering, stumbling monotone. Out of all of the present’s political friends, Leisure Weekly ranked McGovern’s “laugh-free” look useless final.
Christine Ebersole
Weekend Replace acquired one other title change in Season Seven, this time rechristened “SNL Newsbreak.” The floundering section went by means of a number of host adjustments all through the season, with anchor Brian Doyle-Murray getting a co-anchor in Christine Ebersole halfway by means of the yr. As you may see on this clip, each had been microphone-challenged.
“I didn’t assume that what I did on Newsbreak was something particular in any respect,” she instructed the SNL Tales podcast, and the powers that be will need to have agreed: Ebersole solely acquired 5 episodes to co-anchor earlier than being handed the pink slip.
Edwin Newman
In case you’re sufficiently old to have watched the primary season of Saturday Night time Dwell, you’re sufficiently old to recollect Edwin Newman, an NBC Information journalist for 23 years. Like George McGovern, he was a part of that odd experiment to have the present’s host additionally anchor the joke information.
Not like McGovern, nonetheless, he returned to helm Weekend Replace on two subsequent episodes with hosts Billy Crystal (Season 9) and Michael McKean (Season 10). Within the latter, he stated that because the moderator of the Reagan/Mondale debate, he couldn’t joke concerning the candidates as a result of “I need to proceed the nonpartisan function I had in that.” It’s unclear whether or not or not he was critical.
Horatio Sanz
Sanz isn’t obscure to SNL followers, however even die-hards most likely don’t keep in mind his transient stint as Weekend Replace anchor.
However there he was at first of Season 31 in his journalist eyeglasses, filling in for Tina Fey who was on maternity go away. The substitution solely lasted two episodes as Fey acquired a load of Sanz cracking up on the Replace desk and hurried again for the season’s third present.
