This morning NBC will announce that former cast member Darrell Hammond will be taking over for Don Pardo as the announcer for Saturday Night Live, after Pardo passed away a month ago. Hammond had filled in a few times over the years when Pardo had laryngitis, but Lorne Michaels told USA Today that Hammond won’t be doing an impression moving forward: “I just knew it wouldn’t be anybody who sounded like Don or replicated him.” He added, “It can’t be what it was, but it could sort of be in the same tradition.” Hammond said, ” When he passed, they wanted me; it felt right for me to be the one to replace him. It’s been a very improbable life; I didn’t expect something like this, but it feels real good.” Appearing on the show from 1995–2009, Hammond is SNL’s longest-running cast member, and Michaels expects him to be “helpful in ways we haven’t yet figured out.” Watch Hammond do his best Pardo during the James Van Der Beek episode and Pardo talking about a time Hammond filled in for him below, and then try to guess how Hammond will say, “muuuuusical guests.”
