Week 3: The Hegseth dividend

Shane Gillis and Rosalía’s October 10 episode began with Colin Jost as Pete Hegseth, stopped at a police talk show and a confrontation with Sam-I-Am, and finished at a chess tournament. For our purposes, the evening’s great dividing line was whether anyone had anticipated that particular Hegseth. One person had. There are occasions when a very specific suspicion pays the rent.

ohheyteo takes the weekly win with 51 points, followed by wheresDent with 46 and M with 36. JeremyTheMVP and cegg share the next spot at 35; Lpyankee2 finishes with 32 and ktfuntweets with 30. These results cover seven competitive players; my commissioner card stays out of the competition and the prediction counts below.

Among those seven players, ohheyteo alone got the complete first-impression call right: Hegseth, Jost, cold open, worth ten points. ohheyteo was also the only player to predict both Rosalía’s comedy appearance and its placement after Update, collecting six points when she appeared in “Saying Goodbye.” A musical guest can do useful work between the songs, especially for somebody’s prediction card.

cegg supplied another solitary correct call: Mikey Day as the most prominent eligible cast performer in the first sketch, “Cop Talk Show.” Everybody, however—all seven of seven—correctly predicted two Weekend Update guest segments. Three performers appeared across those two segments: James Austin Johnson as Kevin O’Leary, then Ashley Padilla and Grace Reiter together. Counting introductions rather than people spared us a small census dispute.

Only three of seven—M, Lpyankee2, and wheresDent—got the two comedy pretapes exactly right. And “Green Eggs & Ham” requires a distinction: Shane’s break doesn’t qualify because he is the host. My ruling is that Andrew Dismukes stayed in character; the published result is therefore “None,” with no qualifying cast break established. None of the seven competitive players selected that result.

In the season standings, M remains first with 96. Lpyankee2 moves into second with 66, JeremyTheMVP into third with 60, and this week’s top two occupy fourth and fifth with 51 and 46.

The Episode 3 scores are now certified, with all point totals unchanged. The episode archive has the running order; Scores & Rulings explains the decisions and challenge process. Ordinary challenges close October 31 at 11:30 p.m. Eastern.

The next card—Inde Navarrette / Gracie Abrams—is open and locks October 31 at 11 p.m. Eastern. It now uses the simpler Rules 3.0 format: choose five cast members and answer five bonus questions. Three Repertory picks earn two points per appearance; two Featured picks earn four. Each correct bonus answer earns three. Here’s why we changed it. Halloween still comes with homework, but considerably less paperwork.