Who Is Hosting Saturday Night Live Tonight: May 12, 2018

Tonight’s next-to-the-last live episode of Saturday Night Live this season is hosted by the always funny and often controversial, Amy Schumer!

Throughout her relatively young comedy career, few comedians have found themselves at the focus of more contention than Amy Schumer. She has been accused of stealing jokes, she was called a racist in a Washington Post op-ed piece, she’s an advocate for strong gun control, she’s posed nearly nude, took on Glamour Magazine for labeling her as “plus-sized”, she’s been attacked online by Taylor Swift fans over a joke, she’s had a book signing interrupted by animal rights activists, she’s banned fans from taking selfies with her, trolls tried to sabotage the ratings of her book and Netflix hour “The Leather Special“, she walked hundreds of Trump supporters from a Tampa show and she even found herself in a controversy at the 2015 Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential Gala at Lincoln Center by taking a pratfall in front of Kanye West and Kim Kardashian. And that’s just grazing the surface of incidents that have bookmarked Amy Schumer’s comedy life.

Even preparing to host tonight’s Saturday Night Live turned into an online scandal this week for Amy Schumer. This past Tuesday, Amy stopped in one of New York City’s premiere comedy clubs, Carolines on Broadway, in need of 10 minutes of stage time to rehearse her monologue for tonight’s SNL, airing at 11:30pm on NBC. She interrupted the night’s headliner Brendan Sagalow who was in the middle of an hour set he had rightfully earned as part of Caroline’s “Breakout Artist Series” and who graciously yielded the stage with the utmost professionalism. Naturally, social media was furious with Amy. For more info from that night, you can read the full story and the Interrobang’s coverage of the backlash that followed against Amy. Nonetheless, controversy had already struck Amy Schumer’s SNL appearance and she hasn’t even take the stage yet.

This will be Amy Schumer’s second time hosting Saturday Night Live. The first time she hosted was in October, 2015 as part of SNL – Season 41. This may seem odd after listing some of the more controversial moments of Amy Schumer’s career, but her first time hosting Saturday Night Live was met with an overwhelmingly positive reaction. Social media loved Amy as host and our own review of that SNL episode announced that “Amy Schumer is still America’s most twisted sweetheart.” It will be interesting to see if Amy’s SNL monologue tonight will be altered to include her latest chaotic moment at Carolines.

Tonight, Amy Schumer does have plenty to promote when she hosts Saturday Night Live. Her latest film in a comedy movie career that shows no signs of slowing down, “I Feel Pretty“, is currently in theaters everywhere and as you might of guessed, the film was another source of controversy for Amy Schumer who was forced to take on critics who questioned if she was the proper leading woman for a comedy about body-shaming. Amy is also starting a residency at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas this August with the show “Amy Schumer and Friends” featuring Rachel Feinstein, the fabulous Bridget Everett, and Mia Jackson. Tickets have also just gone on sale at AmySchumer.com for Amy’s summer tour which kicks off in San Francisco in June.

When Amy Schumer hosted Saturday Night Live back in 2015, she played a horny high school Algebra teacher, an over-the-top bartender crashing a baby shower, First Lady Mary Todd-Lincoln and appeared in SNL Digital Shorts about gun control and selfie sticks. Headlines and news items that may be the subject of sketches starring Amy Schumer or Weekend Update fodder tonight include the companies that allegedly paid Donald Trump lawyer Michael Cohen millions of dollars for access to the Trump Administration, First Lady Melania Trump unveiling her “Be Best” initiative (you’re on deck Cecily Strong!,) the White House’s bashing of ailing Senator John McCain, the fashion of this week’s annual Met Gala in New York City, and next weekend’s royal wedding. Also, the show may address SNL‘s Kenan Thompson’s announcement late this week that he has no plans of leaving the show and wants to stretch out the record he holds for longest tenured cast member for as long as he possibly can. This year, Kenan is in his 15th season with Saturday Night Live, breaking Darrell Hammond’s record of 14. Of course, this is Mother’s Day weekend and in the past, Saturday Night Live cast members have taken the opportunity to introduce the country to their real-life mothers and give them a little stage time and recognition.

In the promos for tonight’s brand new Saturday Night Live, Amy Schumer gives a tour of the Studio 8H, meets up with cast member Kyle Mooney and talks about the glass ceilings she may or may not be shattering on the show. In the second set of promos, Amy is joined by musical guest Kacey Musgraves who has great expectations for tonight’s episode. They’re also joined by the less special cast member Aidy Bryant.

Saturday Night Live is live tonight across all American time zones with host Amy Schumer and musical guest Kacey Musgraves.

Next week, it’s the Saturday Night Live season finale hosted by former cast member, Golden Globe and Emmy Award winner Tina Fey.