‘Saturday Night Live’ Opens Season 48 With Meta Manning Brothers Commentary Sketch and a Jon Hamm Cameo

variety.com:

Wilson Chapman editor After a summer filled with cast exits and goodbyes, “Saturday Night Live” opened its 48th Season by poking fun at both frequent target President Trump and its own rebuilding period.

The sketch starred the premiere’s host Miles Teller and cast member Andrew Dismukes as sports stars and brother’s Peyton and Eli Manning, in a parody of their “Monday Night Football” commentary show “Manningcast.” However, instead of analyzing the plays of a football game, the two instead turned their insight into the opening sketch of “Saturday Night Live’s” new season.

At the top of the sketch, Teller as Peyton addressed the shakeups that the series has gone through other the summer, which saw eight cast members — Chris Redd, Alex Moffat, Aristotle Athari, Melissa Villasenor, Pete Davidson, Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant and Kyle Mooney — announce their departures from the long-running sketch comedy series. “There are a lot of changes at the show, which could be exciting,” Teller said. “Let’s see what they came up with.” But the sketch-within-a-sketch proved to be a typical opening for the program, with James Austin Johnson reprising his role as Donald Trump in a sketch located at the Mar-a-Lago club during Hurricane Ian.

Although Johnson was joined by Mikey Day, Chloe Fineman, Heidi Gardner and Bowen Yang, the focus was on the Manning’s commentary, with Teller proclaiming that the sketch served “14 attempted jokes, one mild laugh and three chuckles.” Certain jokes poked fun at the show’s tendency to give newer cast members bit parts, with new featured player Michael Longfellow being given a bit part as a political aide, only to fumble his blocking and fail to close a door behind him. “That might be the only time we see