Saturday Night Live is coming back next month, and the lineup for the season 46 premiere has been announced! As Entertainment Tonight shares, the show announced on Thursday that Chris Rock and Megan Thee Stallion will be appearing as the host and musical guest, respectively, when SNL returns.
Saturday Night Live to return to live, in-studio filming
Saturday Night Live is familiar terrain for Rock, who will be hosting the sketch comedy show for the third time on October 3. Entertainment Tonight points out that Megan Thee Stallion has also made an appearance on the show before, but this will be the first time she is the featured musical guest! And while SNL hasn't filmed a live episode on set in some time, Entertainment Tonight mentions that the season 46 premiere will mark the show's return to its home base!
After Daniel Craig's stint as host back in March, with The Weeknd as the featured musical guest, the in-studio portion of season 45 of SNL came to an abrupt end. That's because due to the coronavirus pandemic, the remaining episodes of the season were not taped live— instead, they were recorded remotely from the performers' homes. That's why it's so exciting that the show is set to resume live tapings in Rockefeller Plaza's iconic studio, 8H!
Saturday Night Live EP talks "normalcy" of the show's return
Saturday Night Live's creator and executive producer, Lorne Michaels, recently opened up about what season 46 of the show will be like in a new interview. "There’s the sheer physical challenge of what we can do within protocols," he told Vulture.
"We’ve been getting support from the governor’s office, which is important because the audience is a huge part of it," Michaels explained. "Also, us coming back and accomplishing the show will lead to -- I hate to use the word normalcy -- but it’s a thing that is part of our lives coming back, in whatever form it ends up coming back."
SNL will also see its cast roster looking a little different! Ego Nwodim has been promoted to the main cast, with Lauren Holt, Punkie Johnson, and Andrew Dismukes joining the show this season. And with the U.S. presidential election in November, Jim Carrey has been tapped to play Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, going up against Alec Baldwin's Donald Trump! Maya Rudolph as Kamala Harris and Beck Bennet as Mike Pence are also expected to be featured. Check out SNL's lineup announcement for their first show back here!
He will be the first cast member of full East Asian descent!
