WEEKEND UPDATE

Scarlett Johansson Reveals Whether Husband Colin Jost Is Returning to ‘SNL’

A wave of fan-favorite cast members have exited ahead of the show’s 51st season.

As Saturday Night Live undergoes a sweeping cast purge, Scarlett Johansson has good news for fans of her husband.

Colin Jost, co-anchor of “Weekend Update,” will be back for the show’s 51st season, Johansson confirmed, even as other cast members and writers got the ax.

“He’s going back to work,” the actress, 40, told Entertainment Weekly at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, where her first feature film as a director, Eleanor the Great, is premiering.

Johansson has often appeared alongside Jost, 43, on the show, and was featured in a NSFW “Weekend Update” joke swap segment last season that included a vulgar joke at her expense.

The Avengers star didn’t know whether she would be back for another joke swap this season, since she’s usually asked at the eleventh hour.

“I think that’s basically the MO over at 30 Rock is that everything is like moments before,” she said. “It’s usually like Friday night before the Saturday show.”

Jost joined SNL as a writer in 2005 and took over as “Weekend Update” anchor in 2014. He is the longest-running anchor in the segment’s history, having surpassed Seth Meyers’ previous record in 2021, and the fourth-longest-serving cast member in SNL’s 50-year history.

The comedian first met Johansson when she hosted SNL for the first time in 2006, though they didn’t start dating until 2017.

Longtime co-anchor Michael Che, who joined the show in 2013 and the news segment just one year later, and Jost form the longest-tenured “Weekend Update” duo. It has not yet been confirmed if Che will stay on with Jost behind the news desk.

The Daily Beast has reached out to reps for Jost, Che, and SNL.

Even a lengthy tenure doesn’t seem to protect cast members from Lorne Michaels’ shakeup, however. After it was revealed that eight-season veteran Heidi Gardner wouldn’t be returning for season 51, a New York Post report quoted an anonymous “insider” who said the star wasn’t given a new contract, rather than choosing to leave.

While Gardner has yet to comment on her exit, newer cast members Emil Wakim, Devon Walker, and Michael Longfellow each revealed that they were not asked back themselves.

Meanwhile, SNL announced five new cast members on Tuesday, including MAGA comedian protegé Kam Patterson.

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Eboni Boykin-Patterson

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Erkki ForsterNight News Reporter

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