SNL Cold Open Mixes NCAA Final Four & Pam Bondi Firing To Success

It took a while to get there, but like its newly(ish) launched SNL UK cousin, SNL went for a political cold open tonight.

The skit started out drilling down on the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament’s Final Four before deftly segueing  to the April 2 firing of Pam Bondi. “I made history as the first woman ever to be fired as Attorney General,” the Ashley Padilla portrayed ex-AG lamented. “I shattered that glass exit door.”

Of course, this being another victim of Donald Trump’s self-preservation syndrome, Bondi’s exit wasn’t pretty or sentimental.

“They threw my headshot in the trash like it was the Epstein Files,” complained Padilla’s Bondi, surrounded by Kenan Thompson’s Charles Barkley and other cast mates as TBS sports talking heads.  

“You could work in sports,” Thompson’s spot-on take on the outspoken NBA legend countered to the unemployed Bondi. “I mean, you already look like a woman’s basketball coach who got suspended for pulling on a player’s braid,” he added in a very timely and funny reference (IYKYK).

In fact, moving faster than many a SNL cold open of late, tonight’s more than five-minute start was full of timely references, as well as some welcomed and rare ducks and weaves. Among the quips, Thompson’s Barkley tossed in the war in Iran, a cross-dressing political spouse, and the ongoing Artemis II mission to orbit the moon. All of which, especially backing into the Bondi firing via some March Madness, made the first cold open of April 2026 one of hottest cold opens in ages.

It also proved again that Padilla is full-on MVP for SNL, especially when teamed with the genius of king vet Thompson.

So, Lorne, why don’t you upgrade her to a Repertory player ASAP, or at least before the season is over?

Certainly in a week that saw Bondi pink-slipped as Attorney General, the birthright citizenship-obsessed Trump become the first sitting POTUS to show up for a SCOTUS oral argument, and JD Vance and Pete Hegseth being JD Vance and Pete Hegseth, the Lorne Michaels-created show had a lot to pick from when it came to the starter skit. Traditionally pulling from the political headlines this 51^st season week after week, there was also the chopper fly-over of Kid Rock’s self-described “Southern White House” and the cross-dressing revelations of ex-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to entertain us as the wars in Iran and Ukraine rage on.

Back for the first time in three weeks and up against some March Madness hangovers, tonight’s Saturday Night Live sees Jack Black back as host for the seminal fifth time. There’s a Jack as the NBC late-nighter’s musical guest this weekend too, with Jack White six-stringing it on the show for a sixth time.

Colman Domingo is hosting next week, with Anitta as musical guest. Bet on some Trump blast radius to kick the whole thing off.