Before Colin Jost and Michael Che hosted Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live, Seth Meyers hosted between 2006 and 2014. He also served as a writer and one of the longest-lasting SNL cast members on the variety sketch series, with his role beginning in 2001. Having worked at SNL for well over a decade, he’s certainly written a lot of sketches, but he apparently only wrote five that he knew would work. Now, he has finally revealed one of them.
While taking questions from audience members in a TikTok for Late Night with Seth Meyers, one fan asked the host what his favorite SNL sketch was. After getting clarification that the answer could be either for a sketch that he performed or wrote, he went on to tell a story involving Amy Poehler and Tina Fey.
With them playing political figures Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin, he knew he had a hit on his hands, despite being pretty nervous about it, as he said:
I wrote when Amy and Tina were Hillary and Sarah Palin, and that...I mean, I was there 12 and a half years, and I think I only wrote five sketches that I was sure were going to work. And so usually, I would watch sort of under the bleachers, I wouldn't even watch it live. I'd watch it on a monitor as if that was, like, safety. And that one, I just walked out into the middle of the floor and was just like (raises hands in the air and spins).
Both Poehler and Fey have portrayed Clinton and Palin on more than one occasion, and to this day, these sketches remain some of the most memorable. In fact, the sketch "Sarah Palin and Hillary Address the Nation" is considered one of SNL's best cold opens.
So, I think Seth Meyers' victorious feelings about the sketch he wrote both before and after it happened were warranted.
If I had to guess which specific Palin/Clinton sketch the late-night host was referencing, I'd put my money on "Sarah Palin and Hillary Address the Nation." The sketch aired in 2008 during the Season 34 premiere. It featured Poehler as Clinton and Fey as Palin as they addressed the American public about sexism, the 2008 presidential election, global warming, and their many disagreements. The video currently has 6 million views on YouTube, and at the time, it was highly talked about.
It's not clear if this sketch specifically is the one in question, but I would love to know the other four sketches he knew would kill it when they went live.
Meyers returned to the Weekend Update desk for the SNL50: The Anniversary Special, and it was like nothing had changed. He still occasionally talks about SNL on Late Night, including telling a story about working with Kermit the Frog or another about punching a hole in his office wall. I would give anything to get a whole book about his experience, perhaps once he has some more time on his hands. I hear late night might go the way of the dinosaur...
Since Meyers frequently takes questions from his studio audience at Late Night with Seth Meyers, it’s very likely there will be more stories to come about his days at SNL. Hopefully, that means we'll learn more about these five sketches at some point. I the meantime, you can watch both Late Night and SNL as they air on the 2026 TV schedule on NBC or with a Peacock subscription.
