Who is Hosting Saturday Night Live Tonight: July 15, 2017

Even though Saturday Night Live is off for the summer, the NBC variety series is still making entertainment headlines. Lorne Michaels and his cast and crew dominated the Primetime Emmy Award nominations which came out this week. Saturday Night Live garnered 22 nods, tying HBO’s Westworld for the most this season. You can read more about SNL‘s Emmy nomination domination on the IBang.

One reason for the Television Academy’s big love for Saturday Night Live and the show’s resurgence with viewers this season is Alec Baldwin’s appearances and his popular impression of candidate and then-President Donald Trump. The highest rated episode of Season 42 was the one where Alec Baldwin hosted. And that’s the SNL episode which will get an encore airing at 11:30pm on NBC tonight. It was taped live on February 11, 2017. Just weeks after the real President Trump had been sworn in as Commander-in-Chief.

This episode was a celebration for Alec Baldwin who was marking his 17th time hosting Saturday Night Live. If a show had it all, this one was it. Guest stars included Melissa McCarthy returning as White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer for the cold open. She was assisted by Kate McKinnon who appeared as the country’s new Attorney General Jeff Sessions. In this episode, Kate’s star really shined. Besides the cold open, she was on Weekend Update to question anchormen Colin Jost and Michael Che as Senator Elizabeth Warren and she appeared in an SNL digital short as Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway who was creepily desperate to convince CNN’s Jake Tapper (Beck Bennett) to allow her back on the news network.

Other sketches worth a second look tonight on the Saturday Night Live replay include Alec Baldwin’s co-star from 30 Rock, Tracy Morgan making an appearance in a sketch about Beyonce’s in utero twins and a great sketch early in the show featuring Baldwin as an Army Colonel who is giving hell to some new recruits, except for the one who happens to be his own son. He receives some uncomfortable colonel coddling. One thing to watch for in the military sketch is when Alec Baldwin flubs a line. His recovery is remarkable and hysterical and made this the sketch of the night.

Alec Baldwin did bring his Trump impression back to the show in a sketch featuring the President in the People’s Court suing the Ninth District Court over his travel ban. Trump was also the subject in one of the three digital shorts featured in the episode. In this one, Leslie Jones is campaigning to get to play Donald Trump on the show, even bringing her lobbying efforts to Lorne Michaels’ office. Another digital short was a parody spot which was a hilarious mash-up of Valentine’s Day and Black History Month, two things that white guys have trouble navigating.

Saturday Night Live produced three promos to announce Alec Baldwin’s 17th appearance as host. One promo featured a quick look at Baldwin throughout the years in all of his previous 16 SNL appearances. Another, more dramatic, promo featured Baldwin filmed in black & white contemplating hosting yet again and the third promo was Alec Baldwin appearing with the musical guest for the February 11, 2017 episode, Ed Sheeran.

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