'SNL50: The Homecoming Concert' Will Be Live On Peacock
The music of Valentine’s Day will be live from New York
The 50th anniversary celebration for NBC’s sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live is heating up as it heads to its big primetime special on February 16, and after the Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music documentary, they’re doubling down on music with a full-blown concert. Peacock is airing SNL50: The Homecoming Concert this Friday, February 14 to kick off the big weekend.
The three-hour, 8 PM Eastern broadcast was announced on January 30, after what seemed like several weeks of its existence being known, but not whether it would be broadcast or solely an in-person event. Its being hosted by 6-season cast member and current Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon, whose own musical moments on the show include transforming the Bee Gees’s “Nights On Broadway” into the theme of The Barry Gibb Talk Show and being the “keyboardist” of “I Wish It Was Christmas Today”, which was performed, with some variation, nine times.
Set to perform for the bonanza are his Tonight Show house band The Roots, who were previously musical guests on February 13, 1999) as well as 6-time musical guest Arcade Fire (2/24/2007, 11/13/2010, 5/19/2012, 9/28/2013, 3/17/2018, 5/7/2022) 2-time guest Backstreet Boys (3/14/1998, 5/15/1999), Bad Bunny (2/20/2021, double duty 10/21/2023), 4-time guest Bonnie Raitt (1/28/1978, 1/20/1990, 10/26/1991, 10/1/1994), 2-time guest Brandi Carlile (10/23/2021, 12/10/2022), 2-time guest Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes, who were musical guest on February 16, 2013 and February 28, 2015, the first show after the 40th anniversary special, Chris Martin of Coldplay who made 8 appearances with the band, including this season’s Nate Bargatze episode on 10/5/2024, the others being 4/7/2001, 5/21/2005, 10/25/2008, 11/12/2011, 5/3/2014, 11/2/2019, 2/4/2023, and a solo by him At Home on 4/11/2020, 3-time guest David Byrne (2/10/1979 as part of Talking Heads, 11/18/1989, 2/29/2020), Devo (10/14/1978), Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam (4/11/1992, 4/16/1994, 4/15/2006, 3/13/2010), Jack White (10/19/2002, 3/3/2012, 4/14/2018, 10/10/2020, 2/25/2023) Jelly Roll, who was musical guest on this season’s Jean Smart-hosted premiere on September 28, Lady Gaga (10/3/2009, 5/21/2011, double duty 11/16/2013, just musical guest 10/22/16), Miley Cyrus (host 3/5/2011, double duty 10/5/2013 and 10/3/2015, just musical guest 11/5/2017, 12/15/2018, 5/8/2021), Mumford & Sons (9/22/2012, 4/11/2015, 12/8/2018), Post Malone (5/14/2022), Preservation Hall Jazz Band (7/24/1976), Robyn (12/10/2011), and The B-52s (1/26/1980, 4/21/1990). Gathering these dates was what put this off so much.
SNL50: The Homecoming Concert is executive produced by SNL creator Lorne Michaels and Mark Ronson. Michaels’ Broadway Video will produce with Erin David and Caroline Maroney as producers, Ken Aymong and Rob Paine as supervising producers and directed by former SNL director Beth McCarthy-Miller. It will also play at fan screening events in select IMAX theaters: Regal Edwards Ontario Palace in California, Regal UA King of Prussia in Pennsylvania, Regal Lone Star in Texas, Regal Deer Park New York, and Regal South Beach in Florida.
With The Roots getting ready for this weekend, show alum Paul Shaffer and his World’s Most Dangerous Band are sitting in as house band for The Tonight Show this week, having done so one prior time after the end of them being the house band of David Letterman’s 33-year late night career, leading to this reunion.
Sources: Deadline, SNL Archives