If anyone is doing well under President Trump, it's Saturday Night Live (and Stephen Colbert too). SNL had a banner year after Trump's surprise election. A large part of that is thanks to Alec Baldwin, whose caricature of our Commander-in-Chief is over-the-top, not all that accurate but also painfully spot-on at the same time. Ratings soared and Baldwin seemed to enjoy putting it to Trump.
But would he stick around? He's not a full time cast member after all so many thought the season would be a one and done situation. That isn't the case because Baldwin has confirmed he will be back next season for more time in the orange make-up. While he will still be an integral part of the show, he won't be around as much. He says fans will get "a couple celery sticks" instead of a "whole meal."
This is generally good news for the show and its fans. I personally feel the Trump sketches were never as tight as they could have been but you can't deny that Baldwin was really doing some terrific work. He took the Will Ferrell route of creating a cartoonish version of Trump rather than employing Daniel Day-Lewis accuracy. That's a smart call because, honestly, Trump is pretty outlandish in his own right. Playing him like an childish, oversized Muppet is the right call and Baldwin was smart to tackle it that way.
It's an interesting time for Saturday Night Live. What was a great season because of an election is now turning into three and a half more years of this chaos. How will they keep the energy and enthusiasm up? Will they become more biting and satirical or aim for the low-hanging fruit? Making fun of Trump is a marathon, not a sprint. The show has Baldwin for at least a little while so let's see how they evolve their approach,