Who is Hosting Saturday Night Live Tonight: January 26, 2019

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Tonight, Saturday Night Live is all-new and hosted by superhero fans’ favorite mutant and schizophrenic, James McAvoy!

This evening at 11:30pm et on NBC, James McAvoy becomes the 7th first-time SNL host this season. That’s 7 first-timers out of 11 episodes so far during SNL – Season 44. So let’s hear it for the newbies dominating Saturday Night Live this year!

Playing multiple characters in different sketches tonight on SNL will be no problem for host James McAvoy. His character in the new M. Night Shyamalan film “Glass,” which McAvoy’s promoting tonight, is a reprisal of his character in the previous M. Night movie “Split,” where he plays a deranged man named Kevin Wendell Crumb who suffers from a “split” personality disorder which comes with 24 distinct identities collectively called “The Horde.” The personalities include Hedwig who is a 9-year-old boy, the very sophisticated and mannerly Patricia and “The Beast” who has super-human strength. It would be easy to see McAvoy doing a parody sketch of “Split” where he’s added more personalities to his psyche, including some which are comically odd. Perhaps he thinks he’s a fourth Trump son or a pro wrestler cutting a promo or TV weatherman who suffers with incontinence whenever he mentions rain in the forecast. We’ll wait and see if SNL goes in a “Glass” direction tonight.

The other films James McAvoy is best known for are the “X-Men” series of prequel superhero movies including “X-Men: First Class“, “X-Men: Days of Future Past“, “X-Men: Apocalypse“, and the latest installment, “Dark Phoenix” due out in theaters nationwide this coming June, 2019. McAvoy plays Professor Charles Xavier aka Professor X in these films based on the Marvel comic books. The Professor runs a school for mutants who each have extraordinary abilities very unique to themselves. This all lends itself to another sketch possibility tonight on Saturday Night Live where McAvoy plays Professor X welcoming new mutant students to his superhero school with some of the mutant freshman containing less than desirable and not-so-super abilities. There could be a mutant with the power of extreme yawning or one with the ability to know your tax refund just by looking at you. It seems too good for SNL to pass up an opportunity to parody the “X-Men,” while Professor X is hosting, so expect to see James McAvoy donning a bald-cap on tonight’s show.

There’s plenty in the news and the World of Trump for Saturday Night Live to choose from for tonight’s SNL – Cold Open. It’s really an embarrassment of riches with how much material Donald Trump is providing SNL this week. We’ll see if Lorne Michaels has Alec Baldwin on deck to put on the cotton candy wig and orange make-up for the show opener tonight. The Saturday Night Live writers’ room could go with Trump caving in to the Democrats to stop his government shut-down and walking away from the negotiations completely wall-less. Then, there’s also the arrest of Trump confidante Roger Stone. Trump has more wacky characters in his real-life entourage than Burt Reynolds ever dreamed of. And tonight’s a chance for SNL cast member Kate McKinnon to play another one if she wants to tackle the role of Stone who is Trump’s indicted political strategist with the bullet-shaped head and the Iris Apfel glasses. McKinnon’s presidential repertoire already includes Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, wanna-be Trump best friend Senator Lindsey Graham and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Of course, there’s even more directions for SNL‘s star cast member to go. Kate could also open the show with a sketch Saturday Night Live has already done twice this season, “The Ingraham Angle” featuring McKinnon as Fox News host and Trump cheerleader Laura Ingraham or she might bring back a character she’s played in the past, conservative pundit Ann Coulter who dog-walked Trump on Twitter during the shut-down and got especially brutal with her presidential insults after Trump surrendered to the Dems to reopen the government without getting his beautiful wall in return. It will be interesting to say the least to see which wig Kate McKinnon puts on tonight.

Other topics that could be used as sketch material or Weekend Update premises from this week of headlines include next weekend’s Super Bowl along with the poor officiating that some say cost the New Orleans Saints a trip to Big Game 53, plus there’s the Oscar nominations being announced, and the video of the kid from Covington Catholic High in Kentucky and the Native American elder / war hero who engaged each other in the nation’s capital which dominated the social psyche for a few days. SNL cast member Pete Davidson would be perfect as the Kentucky high school student with the smart-ass smirk who stands directly in front of Michael Che as he tries to deliver the news.

Then there’s also the handful of Democrats already announcing their Presidential runs for 2020, former White House Director of Communications Anthony Scaramucci abandoning “Celebrity Big Brother” after only 6 days (Cameo Alert for Bill Hader as the Mooch,) and the Baseball Hall of Fame inductees being announced. Is it too soon for Kenan Thompson’s David “Big Papi” Ortiz to return to Weekend Update!?

As always, we have the promos for tonight’s new SNL below for you to watch. In the first released promo, host James McAvoy is taking a time-lapsed tour of Studio 8-H with the help of cast members Melissa Villaseñor, Ego Nwodim and Kyle Mooney’s lunch. A stop by wardrobe makes us wonder if there will be a “Sherlock Holmes” sketch tonight? And also in the first promo, look for a special cameo by one of our Saturday Night Live favorites, Wally the Cue Card Guy! In the next set of promos, James McAvoy is joined by musical guest Meek Mill as he tests his ability to do accents with cast member Leslie Jones. Merry Christmas Leslie!

James “The Beast” McAvoy hosts a brand new, live from coast-to-coast Saturday Night Live with musical guest Meek Mill, tonight at 11:30pm et on NBC.

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Ernie Tripper
Ernie Tripper