Admittedly, last week's Saturday Night Live Relevancy Poll was heavily influenced by last season. Of course the new featured players would start near the bottom and perennial recurring sketch kings like Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader would start near the top. Now, two episodes in to the 36th season, living on past success is over as far as the poll is concerned. As Kenan Thompson can tell you, considering his blink-and-you'd-miss-him performance in week one, you'd better come out firing if you want air time -- no matter how many seasons you have under your belt.
The Relevancy Poll is driven by a proprietary algorithm involving such factors as quality airtime, cultural buzz and, just maybe, even a little spite over a particularity wretched sketch centered around fart jokes (ahem, "Shanna"). Movieline will gauge the chatter following each new episode and, based on that, create each week's NRFPTP Relevancy Poll. If your results differ, let's hear about it.
Samberg's 911 app digital short was fantastic. Throw in Rahm Emanuel from the cold open, Cathy, his appearance in "Pepto-Bismol Ice," Goodbye, Jeff and the hangover from last week's brilliant "Actor II Actor" -- Samberg is starting off strong.
The biggest jump of the week. Kenan made two appearances last week: As Lorne Michaels and as Tracy Chapman, which combined for about ten seconds of airtime. This week, Kenan was everywhere: Major roles in four sketches, plus the star of two of the best sketches of the night, "What Up with That" and "I Sleep Pro."
Armisen stock shot up at first sight, appearing as Obama during the cold open. There were some rumors that Jay Pharoah might be taking over the role, apparently not at all true. Armisen also had his arm torn off in a digital short and killed as a one half of the Bjelland Brothers. "I sent a bottle of sparkling apple juice to your house. Did you get it?"
Here's what I wrote last week, "Pedrad is so close to flying up this list." I didn't realize it would be so soon. Other than tenure, can someone explain to me why Abby Elliott is a full cast-member and Pedrad is a featured player? Between "Pepto-Bismol Ice" and her Henry character, she's actually creating content as opposed to just playing the fourth lead.
Meyers is always going to be judged differently than the rest of that cast since he doesn't appear in sketches any longer (RIP, "The Needlers"). "Update" was serviceable, but paled to last week's installment with Amy Poehler. This week seemed to be a little bit of a let down.
I love Moynihan's second-hand-news reporter, Anthony Crispino. More Crispino! He also nailed our new cat-loving White House Chief-of-Staff, Pete Rouse.
Huge week for Bayer. Not an overwhelming amount of airtime, but landing the role of Miley Cyrus in "The Miley Cyrus Show" sketch, appearing right after the commercial parody is quite a coup. "The Miley Cyrus Show" has recurring sketch written all over it.
Where's Sudeikis (and Hader, for that matter) been the last two weeks? During "What Up With That" I noticed that Sudeikis was really into his leaps onto stage, more than usual. He had energy to burn considering that was his only sketch of the night.
Other than last week's "Wedding Venue" sketch, like Sudeikis, we still haven't seen a whole lot of Hader this season. And even his poor Lindsey Buckingham got bumped again on "What Up With That."
Wiig only had one major role and half of her time on screen as Shanna was spent farting into a whistle and burping. It's a terrifying day when I miss "Gilly." The biggest fall of the week.
See, Brittain wasn't in that last spot very long. He received some very solid airtime playing Johnny Depp on "The Miley Cyrus Show."
Not a great week for Pharoah. Not only did he not get the Obama gig (an impression he kills during his stand-up routines, he only appeared during ensemble sketches. He'll be back.
Abby Elliott needs something to do on this show. It's a shame, too, because with Wiig basically on the sidelines the past two weeks, Elliott couldn't take advantage. She's still being overshadowed by other female cast-members -- only this time Pedrad and Bayer.
A decent supporting roll this week, which led to a quite a bit more airtime. Too bad it was in the "Shanna" sketch.