'SNL50' Anniversary Special Announces Performing Guests, Alums, Red Carpet Plans
If I had a nickel for every red carpet show would be produced for this, I’d have two nickels. But it’s only happening once
Alright, we have the list of performing musical acts for SNL50: The Homecoming Concert on Friday, but what about Sunday’s actual anniversary special for Saturday Night Live? Well, we don’t have that yet. We don’t even know whether there will even be musical performances. Probably will, but the possibility that those were spun off into the concert felt…personally plausible. However, the show has already clued us in on some of the celebrity guests and former cast members that will not only be appearing, but featured on the special.
The first wave of guests announced are 4-time host Adam Driver (1/16/2016, 9/29/2018, 1/25/2020, 12/9/2023), Ayo Edebiri, whose sole February 3, 2024 hosting gig was spotlighted in "Written By: A Week Inside The SNL Writers Room" the second episode of the docuseries SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night, Bad Bunny, Dave Chappelle, who was just in the building four weeks prior for his fourth hosting gig, former writer John Mulaney, who hosted for the sixth time with this season’s November 2 episode, Kim Kardashian, who hosted on October 9, 2021, Miley Cyrus, 4-time musical guest Paul McCartney (5/17/1980, 2/13/1993, 12/11/2010, 12/15/2012) 13-time musical guest Paul Simon (three times double duty, once host only), Pedro Pascal, host of the February 4, 2023 episode, cameo for Bad Bunny, and nearly host of last season’s finale Jake Gyllenhaal picked up instead, Peyton Manning, host of the March 24, 2007 episode and last appeared on Weekend Update on Willem Dafoe’s January 29, 2022 episode, Quinta Brunson, host of the April Fools 2023 episode, Robert De Niro (12/7/2002, 12/18/2004, 12/4/2010), who had been Robert Mueller seven times during the previous Felon President administration, Sabrina Carpenter, the musical guest of the aforementioned May 18, 2024 Gyllenhaal-hosted episode, 5-time hosts Woody Harrelson and Scarlett Johansson, who is writer and cast member Colin Jost’s wife, and double-digit hosts Steve Martin and Tom Hanks. Any questions?
Ocasio and Cyrus are already confirmed for the Homecoming Concert, while she, McCartney, and Simon were three of the four musical performances of the 40th anniversary special. McCartney did “Maybe I’m Amazed” and was introduced by Keith Richards, Cyrus did a cover of Simon’s “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover” introduced by Candice Bergen and Win Butler, while Simon, introduced by Jack White was the night’s last performer, bringing back “Still Crazy After All These Years”, which he famously performed on the show the first time in a turkey costume. A Thanksgiving special tradition. So maaaaaybe don’t pinpoint them to have the same role this time.
Martin Short, despite being a season 10 cast member, was listed among the non-alum guests. The actor just hosted the season’s Christmas episode on December 21 and was in fact the host of McCartney’s 2012 episode. On Monday, a significant handful of alums got their own booking announcement. We’ll start with Adam Sandler, who was a cast member from 1991 to 1995, finally returned to host on May 4, 2019, made two At Home cameos and has now appeared in two of the four most recent episodes, hosted by Chris Rock (1990-1993), who is also confirmed for this special, and Timothee Chalamet. Of the surviving original cast, Chevy Chase, Garrett Morris, Jane Curtin, and Laraine Newman are already confirmed. That only leaves Dan Aykroyd remaining to be confirmed. All were gone by the end of season 5, and Morris, Curtin, and Newman have never hosted, while the latter two have yet to return in regular episodes. Amy Poehler (2001-2009), Andy Samberg (2005-2012), Eddie Murphy (1980-1984), in what will hopefully be a more gratifying appearance than the 40th now that things turned in a more gratifying direction after his Christmas 2019 return, Fred Armisen (2002-2013), Jason Sudeikis (2003-2013), Jimmy Fallon, who is hosting the Homecoming Concert, Kate McKinnon (2012-2022), Kristen Wiig (2005-2013), Maya Rudolph (2000-2007), Molly Shannon (1995-2001), Pete Davidson (2014-2022), Seth Meyers (2001-2014), Tina Fey (1998-2006), Tracy Morgan (1996-2003), Will Ferrell (1995-2002), and Will Forte (2002-2010) are all also confirmed. Every single one of these alums have hosted at least once, with Davidson and McKinnon hosting last season’s premiere and Christmas episodes respectively. Similarly, Sudeikis and Forte were first time hosts in season 47. Rudolph and Samberg appeared in the five episodes that began this season and led up to the election, entirely playing Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff. Rudolph and Fey’s cameos are in the dozens, we’d be here all day. Oh yeah, and current castmember Kenan Thompson, the longest tenured in the show’s history at 22 seasons, was included in this. That he was the only current cast member was confusing and shouldn’t be read into.
For the 40th anniversary special a decade ago, Wikipedia counts 66 performers that weren’t current cast members at the time, so most anyone involved in covering SNL or following those that do believe either this is just a first wave, or everyone else is being kept a surprise. Dana Carvey (1986-1993), who appeared in 9 of this season’s first 10 episodes, would be quite the surprise miss. Six-season castmember Melissa Villaseñor (2016-2022) already shared she would be attending, and considering what her tenure was like it’d be a shameful fit if she was relegated to just being audience. Just look at how many alums participated in the Beyond Saturday Night docuseries and New York Magazine cover shoot still unaccounted for, or that handfuls of past cast members are basically on a press tour. Newman’s been on Howard Stern with Chris Kattan (1996-2003), Bobby Moynihan (2008-2017), Kevin Nealon (1986-1995), and Jon Lovitz (1985-1990), Watch What Happens Live with Cecily Strong (2012-2022), Cheri Oteri (1995-2000), Ana Gasteyer (1996-2002) and Rachel Dratch (1999-2006), and The View with Leslie Jones (2014-2019) and Julia Sweeney (1990-1994). Something’s gotta give.
Whoever else does show up, you might be seeing them on the preceding SNL50: Red Carpet Livestream, hosted by Chicken Shop Date creator and host Amelia Dimoldenberg at 7 PM Eastern across all SNL social and digital platforms, namely YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok. The evolution of television indulgence is exemplified here with an attempt to grab younger demos as the red carpet for the 40th anniversary was hosted by Today hosts Matt Lauer, Savannah Guthrie, Carson Daly and Al Roker. Now, it won’t be on NBC at all. “I can’t wait to celebrate 50 years of the legendary SNL and speak to some of my all-time comedy heroes who have inspired me so much,” Dimoldenberg, whose web series has garnered her 2.4 million subscribers amounting more than 520 million views of accrued experience chatting up celebrities said.
Or at least, that’s how it seemed. It was announced Thursday morning that there would be a linear red carpet special, hosted by Jones, along with Willie Geist and current cast member Bowen Yang’s Las Culturistas cohost, comedian Matt Rogers. Not only will it be on NBC and Peacock, but also E! So at least she is part of things after all.
Sources: Variety, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter