Who is Hosting Saturday Night Live Tonight: December 15, 2018

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Live from New York! It’s the Saturday Night Live mid-season finale hosted by Matt Damon!

Back on September 29th of this year, Matt Damon made a social media splash when appeared in the cold open of the Saturday Night Live – Season 44 premiere as Donald Trump’s embattled Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. The SNL Cold Open that night was filled with cameos and had the SNL cast doing an impression of almost everyone working in Washington. Matt Damon was the obvious star of the sketch as the angry, whiny, almost on the verge-of-tears Kavanaugh. He mocked out the SCOTUS pick’s own Senate testimony while imitating Kavanaugh’s real life meltdown / tantrum and taking it all to 11, by shuffling papers, waving around his prop calendars, putting his own spin on the nominee’s high school buddies’ nicknames and downing water by the gallon. The cold open that night ran over 13 minutes long, nearly 3 times the length of an average SNL – Cold Open. Matt Damon received unanimous raves (from the left) for his portrayal of the pouty-faced Brett Kavanaugh who in reality went on to receive the lowest amount of approval votes by the Senate of any Supreme Court Justice in U.S. history. After the success of the season opener, it’s no wonder that Lorne Michaels would invite Matt Damon back three months later to host the end-of-the-year finale. Once tonight’s curtain call is over, SNL goes on a break for the holidays to recharge the writers’ and cast’s batteries to get ready for January.

Tonight’s guest host, Matt Damon is no stranger to Saturday Night Live. He did host the show back in 2002, helming the SNL – Season 28 season premiere. That was 16 years ago, so hopefully the audience won’t be too burned out on Matt Damon having him come back to host so soon. Damon also made cameos on Saturday Night Live, other than his Kavanaugh appearance. He showed up in a “Mango” sketch with Chris Kattan in 2001 during SNL – Season 27 when Gwyneth Paltrow hosted and again in an SNL – Season 37 digital short called “Best Friends“. Damon played a drug addict in the short produced by the Lonely Island for SNL.

Now, unless it’s his cameo appearance in the re-edited re-release of “Once Upon a Deadpool,” in theaters now, Matt Damon doesn’t have anything listed that he’s promoted when he hosts Saturday Night Live tonight at 11:30pm et on NBC. However, the SNL writers will have a treasure trove of Matt Damon movies to parody for sketches tonight. There’s the Jason Bourne series of secret government operative movies that gave Damon quite a payday during his career. Also, Saturday Night Live could play off of the Damon films “The Martian“, “Behind the Candelabra” (HBO), The “Ocean’s” films, “The Legend of Bagger Vance” (widely panned), “The Talented Mr. Ripley“, “Saving Private Ryan” and the film that will have him billed as “Academy Award winner Matt Damon” for the rest of his life, “Good Will Hunting.”

What else will be on tonight’s Saturday Night Live mid-season finale? Trump personal lawyer Michael Cohen was just sentenced to 3 years in prison, so don’t be surprised to see Ben Stiller make a quick return trip to SNL as Donald Trump’s “fixer”. And with it looking like Robert Mueller is getting closer and closer to President Trump, we may see Alec Baldwin back already as our Colluder-in-Chief, especially with the odd meeting of the minds this week in the Oval Office between Trump, VP Pence, past and future Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY). Between Baldwin, and cast members Beck Bennett, Cecily Strong and Alex Moffat, all four of these political impressions would be covered.

Stories in the national conversation this week that could end up as sketches or as Weekend Update punchlines on SNL include the publisher of the National Enquirer admitting to paying hush money to keep Trump’s mistresses quiet, Melania Trump’s interview with Sean Hannity, the Oscars’ search for a new host now that Kevin Hart has bowed out, the newest inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, changes at the Today Show with Kathie Lee Gifford leaving, California’s proposed “text tax”, KFC’s new fried chicken scented fire log and of course tonight is the Saturday Night Live Christmas show, so watch for sketches featuring Santa, kids sitting on his lap at the mall, awkward trips home for the holidays, bad gift ideas, and New Year’s Eve celebrations gone wrong. Also, Miley Cyrus is one of tonight’s musical guests and she always like to get in on the sketch comedy fun on SNL, so expect to see her in more than just the song segments.

In the promos which you can watch below for tonight’s final SNL before the holiday break, Matt Damon sits down with musical guests Miley Cyrus and Mark Ronson and cast members Cecily Strong and Beck Bennett for a Secret Santa party. Things we’ve learned from this promo include “Secret Santa” being Matt Damon’s favorite part of Christmas. At least it was until this promo was filmed. Also, if you’re going to do an SNL Secret Santa party, you don’t want Beck Bennett drawing your name. In the next set, Matt, Miley and Mark are joined by cast member Kate McKinnon and they discuss all the holiday parties going on at SNL. Wait, what parties? Plus, Kate is a little concerned about Matt Damon this holiday season.

The last Saturday Night Live of 2018 is tonight! Matt Damon is the host that wraps up the year on SNL with musical guests Mark Ronson and Miley Cyrus. And it all happens this evening on NBC at 11:30pm et and like Santa, SNL is flying live across all time zones.

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Ernie Tripper
Ernie Tripper