'SNL' won't have to strain for material in season premiere

If "Saturday Night Live" is looking for a measure of redemption with its season premiere, at least the NBC show -- which begins its 44th season on Saturday -- won't be hard-pressed to find topical material.

"SNL" and producer Lorne Michaels are coming off their widely panned stewardship of this year's Emmy Awards, which were hosted by "Weekend Update" team Michael Che and Colin Jost, and featured appearances by a number of performers associated with the franchise, past and present.

Nevertheless, the satirical late-night show seems to have a tailor-made opening in this week's hearing surrounding Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Whether Alec Baldwin will make his return as President Trump, meanwhile, remains to be seen. The actor has said that he'll continue to appear on the show, but stressed that he'll be judicious about how often, saying he would reprise the impression, but "not a whole lot."

The kickoff episode will be hosted by Adam Driver (fresh off the movie "BlacKkKlansman") and feature Kanye West as the musical guest, marking his seventh appearance in that capacity.

NBC has announced that Awkwafina ("Crazy Rich Asians") and late-night host Seth Meyers will host "SNL" on Oct. 6 and Oct. 13, respectively. Travis Scott and Paul Simon will be the musical guests.

"SNL" did win the Emmy for variety sketch series -- one of eight awards overall -- and remains a powerful ratings draw. But the show generated a mixed critical response last season, and recently drew some fire from an unexpected source: Original cast member Chevy Chase, who blasted its current quality in a Washington Post interview.

"Saturday Night Live" airs live coast-to-coast at 11:30p ET/8:30p PT on NBC

By Brian Lowry, CNN.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2018 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.

The Gayly 9/29/2018 @ 1:17 p.m. CST.