SNL Mocks NYC Mayoral Debate; Gillis Returns

Saturday Night Live opened its Nov. 2 episode with a cold open lampooning a fictional New York City mayoral debate, featuring host Miles Teller as Andrew Cuomo, Ramy Youssef as frontrunner Zohran Mamdani and Shane Gillis as Republican Curtis Sliwa, with Kenan Thompson moderating as Errol Louis. The sketch skewered Cuomo’s pandemic handling and harassment scandals, mocked Mamdani’s policy promises, name pronunciation and TikTok‑style campaigning, and played Sliwa as a one‑note, job‑seeking target of past attacks. James Austin Johnson’s Donald Trump crashed the debate to declare the election “about me,” and the cold open also referenced the federal shutdown, food‑stamp cuts and the World Series ahead of the Nov. 5 election. The segment marked Gillis’s return to SNL after his 2019 firing and kicked off the show’s November lineup for season 51.