PLAYING IT SAFE

‘SNL’ Announces Season 50’s First Five Hosts and Musical Guests

The plan seems to be, at least for the season’s first five shows, to keep things chill.

Saturday Night Live may just steer clear of controversy in its first five shows of the 50th season, if the list of upcoming hosts released today is any indication.

SNL has seen a series of big changes since it went off air after Season 49. Pioneering cast members Punkie Johnson and Molly Kearney announced their exists, along with featured player Chloe Troast, just as NBC announced that Maya Rudolph would be returning to reprise her role as Vice President Kamala Harris.

The shows’ first five hosts include Jean Smart with musical guest Jelly Roll for its premiere September 28, followed by Nate Bargatze with musical guest Coldplay, Ariana Grande with musical guest Stevie Nicks, Michael Keaton with musical guest Billie Eilish, and John Mulaney with musical guest Chappell Roan, according to the show’s X account.

With Smart kicking off the much-anticipated season, viewers can expect her usual wit and (possibly) some impressions, based on her latest appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert where she tried impressions for the first time—though she noted at the time, “I only do two.”

“I do Maggie Smith [from Downtown Abbey] and Woody Woodpecker,” she explained to Colbert.

Bargatze, a Grammy-nominated comedian out of Nashville, will take the helm the following week for his second time after hosting last year.

He’s known for his “clean and relatable comedy for all age groups,” according to his website and has been lauded for his “clean, Christian comedy”—so he isn’t likely to cause controversy for the long-running show, which has faced backlash for having a variety of controversial figures on the show, like Nikki Haley and Elon Musk, in recent seasons.

A lot of the excitement on social media Wednesday seems to be for the show’s next three episodes, featuring Grande as host and Nicks, Eilish and Roan as musical guests. Grande hosted for the first time 2016, and has been a musical guest three times. Eilish has also hosted once and been a musical guest three times.

Season 50 will be Chappell Roan’s first appearance on the show alongside Mulaney, who’ll be hosting for the sixth time. He posted to social media after he was announced as a host that it was “the first time I'm hearing of this”—the Daily Beast has reached out to confirm whether or not he’s joking.

Keaton will host for the fourth time, as he sneaks up on a spot in the show’s coveted “Five Timers Club.”

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Eboni Boykin-PattersonEntertainment Reporter

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