Emmy Episodes: Saturday Night Live

It’s always my policy to watch every Emmy-nominated episode each year, which leads me to sample a handful of shows that I don’t tune in to on a regular basis. This year, I’m making a special effort to spotlight each of those installments to offer my perspective on shows that I don’t review each week.

Saturday Night Live: Season 41, Episode 9 “Tina Fey and Amy Poehler / Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band” (B+)
Nominated for Best Guest Actress in a Comedy Series (Tina Fey and Amy Poehler)

It’s hard to find a comedy duo as cool as Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Both comediennes got their start as regular players on this show and then anchored their own comedy series on NBC for many years. They’ve both been nominated for Emmys every year since 2008 and their careers are only heating up. They hosted the Golden Globes together for three years in a row and now they’re contending for an Emmy together for a joint stint hosting SNL. This is the first time that two actresses have been nominated together in this category, though it has happened in the reality host race before. Both actresses are hot right now, and they’re so comfortable back on their old show that it’s hard not to love them. They start out singing a duet and then get to revisit the characters they’re best known for: Sarah Pain and Hillary Clinton. That scene with Kate McKinnon as a present-day Hillary could well win them this trophy. The chance to tell the final “Weekend Update” jokes of the year shows how respected they are, and their “Squad” segment with Amy Schumer is pretty funny too. Doing a sketch with another fan favorite and past Emmy nominee for hosting, Maya Rudolph, helps too. I’m not sure it was as funny as I was hoping it would be, but they’re having such a blast being back home, and their closing number with Bruce Springsteen demonstrates how beloved they are. I’ll look at the category as a whole soon, but I think they have a pretty great shot at winning just on their own joint merit.