Our top story tonight: Weekend Update has been giving us laugh-out-loud takes on the days' news stories since Chevy Chase uttered who he was and we weren't in 1975. Since then, it has secured itself as not just a favorite part of any "Saturday Night Live" episode, but a cherished component of our popular culture itself. Countless classic moments have occurred within the segment, all lorded over by an anchor who served as the festivity's ringmaster. They have come in singles and pairs and regardless of the permutation, it seems to be one of the best jobs in television comedy. Along the way there have been good ones, bad ones and great ones, and here we rank them all.
(Photo credits: NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)
#18 - Charles Rocket (1980 - 1981)
![]()
Rocket was billed as an answer to Chevy Chase and Bill Murray the first season after Lorne Michaels and all the original cast members departed the show. He never lived up to that expectation, delivering a stiff, straight man presence to the Weekend Update desk. He's best remembered for getting fired for using the F-bomb on air during the goodnight credits. However his anchorman was involved in something historic: presiding over Eddie Murphy's first real introduction to the "SNL" audience... and the world.
#17 - Christopher Guest (1984 - 1985)
![]()
A comic genius, no doubt, and Guest made some classic contributions to "SNL's" Season 10. But he never looked comfortable behind the Weekend Update desk, and gave another straight man approach the role, with a slowly simmering weirdo twist. Cast mates Billy Crystal, Martin Short, Jim Belushi, etc. were champions as various WU correspondents, but Guest never seemed to want to join in on that fun.
#16 - Colin Quinn (1998 - 2000)
![]()
It wasn't the words that came out of Colin Quinn's mouth that was the problem, it seems it was the mouth itself. His jokes came forth with a strange stunted, choppy delivery as if before each Weekend Update segment he stuffed his mouth with marbles, smiled, and began the news. The smile was devilish and a perfect device for a comic anchor, but in Quinn's case, his seemed to suggest he knew he was making a mess of this revered role yet wasn't going to let that bother him.
#15 - Kevin Nealon (1991 - 1995)
![]()
Another anchorman with an articulation problem, Nealon definitely looked the part. He was affable and and gave reliable laughs in sketches. But behind the desk he never seemed to become of master of his new role. Seniority likely got him the gig, and he must have had experience reading cue cards before as a regular player, but as an anchor he would commonly garble the lines and derail the jokes. Uncomfortable for sure, both his delivery and the laughs that were generated for all the wrong reasons.
#14 - Brad Hall (1982 -1984)
![]()
Brad Hall's biggest problem was that as a Weekend Update anchor - and maybe as a cast member in general - he left no memorable mark. Co-stars Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo were wildly popular and soaked up much of the spotlight. But Hall was mostly always the straight man and gave the straight man's approach to delivering the news without giving it any interesting spin. Though 1984 was an election year, the encompassing events were largely ignored by WU, which perhaps could have been a way for Hall to finally showcase his humor. He was yanked from the desk before the end of his final season and replaced with a rotation of SNL's guest hosts filling the seat.
#13 - Brian Doyle-Murray (1981 - 1982)
![]()
The darkness that started to lift from the SNL doldrums after its creator and original cast left came around 1981, but that credit can't be given to what Brian Doyle-Murray brought to Weekend Update. He'd actually been a performer alongside younger brother Bill in the latter's last season and a writer in the year that followed. His gravelly voice and newsman's gravitas would have made Doyle-Murray the perfect fit as anchor, but combining more straight man sensibility with a writing staff trying to find its footing did not translate into a lot of laughs for his Update.
#12 - Seth Meyers and Cecily Strong (2013 - 2014)
![]()
With Meyers on his way out the door to become part of the Late Night boys club, a girl was invited to share the anchor desk with him in an effort to make a smooth transition. The first duo of our list, the pairing wasn't exactly rocky - there just wasn't much of anything there. The chemistry was weak between Seth Meyers and Cecily Strong and Weekend Update, after a long run of comedic greatness, began to resemble the boys club of our entries above.
#11 - Cecily Strong/Colin Jost/Michael Che (2014 - Present)
![]()
In the interest of time - and their impact to Weekend Update - we've morphed these two duos into one entry. With Meyers gone, the hope was that Strong would find chemistry when joined by Colin Jost. But that science experiment failed and Strong was shown the WU door to return back to her regular player status. Jost was joined my Michael Che - 40 years later somehow its first black anchor - though Lester Holt might be able to share similar real world stories. Together they have not brought anything fresh or new to the desk, and may actually rank lower up this list, but since they've only been at it together since this past January, we'll give them the benefit of the doubt and place them right here.
#10 - Seth Meyers (2008 - 2013)
![]()
He's definitely cheerful, with the big smile of a mischievous child hidden beneath the cloak of a grown man - wait a minute, is that an unintended Catholic church reference? Seth Meyers did have a great delivery and the uncanny ability to make lemonade out of a joke gone bad. But his play-it-safe playfulness left eager Weekend Update viewers a bit thirsty. He was the show's head writer, and deserves props for that, and cloaking, er, clocking in at 154 episodes solo or paired, the longest serving anchorman in "SNL" history.
#9 - Jane Curtin and Bill Murray (1978 - 1980)
![]()
The last of the Jane Curtin-as-anchor iterations, her pairing with Bill Murray did not ignite the sparks she shared with Dan Ackroyd, who in the Weekend Update world had been promoted to "Station Manager," and made only semi-regular appearance there. But Curtin and Murray were such pros that they made for a must-watch duo. Her business-like presence with his infamous goofiness brought much color and fun to an ever-evolving WU desk.
#8 - Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers (2006 - 2008)
![]()
As bright as her hair, Amy Poehler is ray of comic sunshine and Seth Meyers did benefit from the warmth she brought to Weekend Update desk. They may not have been innovative, but they were a hoot to watch and their tenure together was marked with some truly hilarious moments. The pinnacle may have been the Sarah Palin gansta rap Poehler performed for Meyers and VP candidate Palin seated beside her. An amazing comic moment already, the fact the Poehler was nine months pregnant made it mind-blowingly immaculate.
#7 - Jane Curtin (1976 - 1978)
![]()
Funny how Weekend Update's first straight man anchor was a woman. Jane Curtin had the unenviable task of filling Chevy Chase's shoes when the true breakout star of "SNL's" original season broke out a year later and left the show behind him. Chase was such a dominant presence on that show - and his WU appearances in particular a pop culture benchmark - that any replacement might have felt a bit rattled. But as Curtin's persona proved, she wouldn't be rattled. She was a serious-as-hell fake newswoman and we learned quickly that you didn't need to bring overt goofiness to that chair to be hilarious.
#6 - Jimmy Fallon and Tina Fey (2000 - 2004)
![]()
The new guard's ultimate boy/girl pairing, the tremendous contributions Fallon and Fey have gone on to make within the comedy universe can all be traced right back to here. They used their obvious chemistry and turned it into dynamite every week for the audiences at home. The anchor desk was their playground and whatever went on during that episode's sketches before and after, the duo always knocked the precious minutes of Weekend Update out of the park. They were clearly having fun. Maybe too much fun since Jimmy Fallon's giggles were often uncontainable. As it turns out, with them, so were ours.
#5 - Jane Curtin and Dan Aykroyd (1977 - 1978)
![]()
The first anchor duo, and a memorable one at that. Jane Curtin's serious newswoman was joined by Dan Ackroyd, who gave the role his own straight man spin. Yet together lunacy ensued and any lasting vestige of Chevy Chase's Weekend Update was obliterated. They were an outrageous pair, true performers giving it their all to unknowingly set comic history on a brand new course. Their classic Point/Counterpoint segment introduced us to the incredible line "Jane, you ignorant slut." The world hasn't been the same since.
#4 - Chevy Chase (1975 - 1976)
![]()
The original anchor was undeniably an original, seeing the concept of Weekend Update as a blank canvass and painting it with a brand of outrageousness that television audiences had never seen before. For all the talent that the rest of the pioneering players possessed, they nevertheless spent that first year under Chase's colossal shadow for his star quickly burned the brightest. WU was his greatest contribution to "SNL" - he set the mold for what could be done at that desk - and few have been able to improve upon it since. Equal parts charm and smarm, he matter-of-factly turned the role of the sober, sane newsman upside down with an unexpected injection of offhand, wild insanity.
#3 - Tina Fey and Amy Poehler (2004 -2006)
![]()
There is a long-held belief, particularly among the male comedians of yore, that women are just not funny. If anyone actually believed that in this day and age, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler obliterated that notion when they became the first female Weekend Update anchor duo. More than chemistry, they had a comic sisterhood, tackling both serious news stories and silly notions as one hilarious team. Fearless, flawless, and fall-down funny, they could teach a master class in how to own WU for most everyone out there - male or female.
#2 - Norm Macdonald (1994 - 1997)
![]()
Weekend Update was a perfect fit for Macdonald, more so than most of the other comedians on this list. He was cynical. He was sarcastic. And he was uncompromising. No one was safe from his relentless wit: not presidents, celebrities, nor random newsmakers. The audience loved him for it, too, almost bracing themselves before each story in anticipation of how far he might actually go for a joke at someone else's expense. He was also beloved for how little he seemed to care about what the audience laughed at and appeared to be just as pleased with a line that brought down the house as one that solidly fell flat. Norm believed he knew what was funny better than anyone else out there, and many believe he had every reason to.
#1 - Dennis Miller (1985 - 1991)
![]()
Lorne Michaels wanted to give the gig to Jon Lovitz, but Lovitz was too busy with all the sketches he was appearing in. The fact that the greatest Weekend Update anchor ever was not a first choice might be our most definitive confirmation that God really does exist. Within the hands of Dennis Miller, the news of the mid-80s and dawn of the '90s was skewered by another higher power who's wily wit and wordplay helped steer "SNL" back from the brink of irrelevance and returned to a true comic renaissance. Part joker and part king, Miller, adorned with a crown of lofty hair, used his sarcasm and smarts to make us all his loyal subjects. No one has ever looked more comfortable in that anchor's chair and no one ever made it look so easy.
