The cold open sketch was a parody of the popular Manningcast, the alternate broadcast of Monday Night Football that airs on ESPN+ and ESPN2 hosted by Peyton and Eli Manning and featuring special guests. Teller turned out to be a perfect choice to play Peyton as he had the voice, speech patterns and expressions down pat. (Andrew Dismukes portrayed Eli as a bit goofy.)
Instead of analyzing a live football game, this version of Manningcast provided some humorous analysis of this season's SNL cast as they performed a Donald Trump-themed sketch. A lot has been made about the large number of departures from the cast since last season, including Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant and Pete Davidson, leading many to consider this season of SNL a "rebuilding year". As a result, most of the jokes come from Peyton and Eli analyzing this season's cast, talking about the pressure on the returning cast members, such as Bowen Yang, as well as questions about how the four new members of the cast will be used. The result is a pretty funny sketch.
The sketch also includes a couple of surprise cameos, including Olympic gold medalist Shaun White as the "special master" and Jon Hamm playing himself as the Manningcast guest. Of course, this may not be as funny as the real Peyton Manning and his hysterical "United Way" SNL sketch, but that is a high bar to clear. However, Teller's Peyton Manning impression in his first SNL hosting gig makes this a worthwhile watch.
UPDATE: Eli watched the skit and called it "a dream come true" to be made fun of by SNL:
[SNL]To get made fun of on SNL, a dream come true. https://t.co/HllstOPfei
— Eli Manning (@EliManning) October 2, 2022
Moonlighting as a blogger to pursue my interest and enjoyment of sports. Former high school and Division I athlete (now a "retired" family man) that loves watching and discussing all sports. Follow me on Twitter (@HoldoutSports) and like Holdout Sports on Facebook.
