After a glorious six-episode run, Jim Carrey is resigning from playing President-elect Joe Biden on Saturday Night Live Season 46. We learned Carrey would play Biden back in September, just ahead of the Season 46 premiere. At the time, it was reported the Carrey had lobbied longtime SNL head, Lorne Michaels, to play the then-Democratic presidential nominee as the show prepared to run alongside the 2020 election. Carrey was the fifth actor to play Biden on the long-running NBC comedy series, following in the footsteps of Kevin Nealon, Jason Sudeikis, John Mulaney, and Woody Harrelson. Carrey was joined by SNL alum Maya Rudolph, who returned to play Biden's running mate, Kamala Harris.
On Saturday morning, Carrey announced he was quitting his role as SNL's resident Biden on Twitter, writing, "Though my term was only meant to be 6 weeks, I was thrilled to be elected as your SNL President...comedy’s highest call of duty. I would love to go forward knowing that Biden was the victor because I nailed that shit. But I am just one in a long line of proud, fighting SNL Bidens!"
Carrey's announcement was shared hours ahead of the new December 19 episode airing on Saturday evening. The episode is set to be hosted by SNL alum Kristen Wiig. Carrey's news confirms fans will not see the comedic actor in Saturday night's live episode. This means Carrey went out on the highest of high notes, with his final Season 46 appearance as Biden occurring on the November 7 episode — the same day Biden and Harris were confirmed as the winners of the 2020 election.
The news of Carrey's exit from the Biden role now opens it up for another willing comedian to step into the new President's shoes. As Collider's own Liz Shannon Miller pointed out to me whilst processing this news, one of the strongest candidates to play Biden seems to be Mulaney. Not only has the Big Mouth star and SNL alum already portrayed the President-elect, but he's currently employed as a writer at Late Night with Seth Meyers, which is housed along with SNL at NBC headquarters, better known as 30 Rock. Mulaney running between shows from week to week is a tall order, but one he could be particularly suited for having already done this while hosting SNL — and subsequently promoting those shows before they aired — twice in 2020.
As for other candidates, your fan-casting dreams are as likely as mine. While I'd love to see Sudeikis bring back his folksy, "aw shucks" interpretation of Biden back to SNL, the actor is likely tied up in preparations for Ted Lasso Season 2 over at Apple TV+. Nealon and Harrelson are also possibilities, but this might be a good opportunity to get a new face in the mix. It's possible that recasting for Biden will take place while SNL is on break for the holidays, which begins after the December 19 episode. This means that we could get word on who will play President-elect Biden as early as January 2021.
Saturday Night Live airs tonight, December 19, on NBC at 11:30 ET/8:30 PT. See Carrey's farewell tweet below. For more, watch the best sketches from the Timothée Chalamet-hosted episode.