Who’s Hosting Saturday Night Live Tonight: January 20, 2018

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Molly’s Game star Jessica Chastain hopes to have a winning hand tonight as she hosts a live episode of Saturday Night Live at 11pm on NBC.

Season 43 is certainly becoming the season for first-time hosts on SNL. Jessica Chastain will be the seventh star this season making their Saturday Night Live hosting debut out of 11 episodes so far. Chastain, who has been getting critical acclaim and award nominations for playing Molly Bloom in Molly’s Game, will be promoting the crime-drama film about a high stakes underground poker game in Hollywood which co-stars Idris Elba, Kevin Costner, Michael Cera, Jeremy Strong and Chris O’Dowd. A Molly’s Game parody sketch involving a celebrity poker game might not be a bad idea on SNL tonight. It would be a great way to highlight the many celebrity impressions done by the cast members including Melissa Villaseñor who is a master of impersonations.

Not only is Jessica Chastain another first-time host, she’s also joins Sam Rockwell as another host this season who is likely to hear their name announced when the Academy Award nominations are revealed this Tuesday. Last week when Rockwell hosted, we talked about how Saturday Night Live has become a recent stop on a host’s way to winning an Oscar and it’s a testament to how relevant Saturday Night Live remains in our social dialogue, that the stars of today’s top box office dramas still want to be the weekly host of a show that does sketches about scientists creating a “Dog-Head Guy”, which we loved by the way.

The stories dominating the news this week that may find their way into SNL sketches include politicians’ efforts and lack of efforts to avoid a government shut-down. This could mean the return of Alec Baldwin as President Trump and cast member Alex Moffat as Democratic Senator from New York, Chuck Schumer who had private meetings with the President at the White House regarding the shut-down. Speaking of Donald Trump, today is actually the 1 year anniversary of when the former host of “The Apprentice” was sworn in as the President of our country, which he considers to be of the non-shit-hole variety. Jessica Chastain’s own politics may play into tonight’s show since she is a leading member of the Time’s Up movement and since SNL has plunged itself deeply into the issue of male sexual misconduct in America. Ever since Saturday Night Live first addressed the story of Harvey Weinstein’s depraved behavior, it has not looked back and sketches involving the subject have dominated episodes including Weekend Update. Also, SNL and Weekend Update may look at the upcoming Super Bowl, Hollywood awards shows and the newest member of Kanye and Kim Kardashian West’s family, new baby Chicago West, which sounds like either a trendy Windy City eatery or a neighborhood known for its many shootings.

In the first of the promos for tonight’s live SNL, host Jessica Chastain and cast member Kate McKinnon confront each other about their on-going feud, much like Bette Davis and Joan Crawford did in the FX mini-series, “Feud“. The two threaten to outshine each other tonight, until Jessica realizes that Kate isn’t her Saturday Night Live nemesis…someone else is. In the second set of promos, Jessica “Jessie J” Chastain is joined by cast member Kenan Thompson and debut musical guest, a knuckle-cracking Troye Sivan to discuss SNL parties, Jessie J’s film roles and Kenan’s debts.

Jessica Chastain hosts a brand new episode of Saturday Night Live along with first-time musical guest Troye Sivan, tonight at 11:30pm on NBC. Next week, SNL finishes out January with another new show starring Saturday Night Live alumnus Will Ferrell hosting live across all time zones on January 27th.

Ernie Tripper
Ernie Tripper