After a shift that saw Colin Jost move down to the writing staff from the co-head writer position to focus on Weekend Update in 2015, he and Update co-anchor Michael Che have been named co-head writers of Saturday Night Live. Joining Kent Sublette and Bryan Tucker, who themselves became co-head writers this season after Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider departed for Comedy Central, Che and Jost will be working with Sudi Green and Fran Gillespie as writing supervisors, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
This season of Saturday Night Live has enjoyed its best ratings in a decade, and last year’s season during the 2016 election had the best ratings in 22 years. Jost and Che are a big part of that. Weekend Update’s political satire and cutting commentary from Che (who worked on The Daily Show) and Jost have been amongst the consistently best segments week-in and week-0ut. Considering the big viewership Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel are currently garnering as the relatively toothless-Jimmy Fallon falls in the ratings, it seems like this is a move to keep the political fires burning.
It also doesn’t hurt that the two are consistently very, very funny. With Che showing that his taped segments can be on-point as well.
