Who is Hosting Saturday Night Live Tonight: May 15, 2021

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With only two new SNLs left this season, Saturday Night Live stays on-key tonight with a live show hosted by Keegan-Michael Key!

This has been Saturday Night Live‘s first full season since the pandemic started and even though some things have changed, (masked curtain calls, first responder audiences, 20 shows instead of the regular 21, etc.) one thing hasn’t changed and that’s how fast a season of SNL flies by. We’re already down to the last two shows of a 20 show season. And 14 of those 20 shows will have had a first-time host.

Tonight’s host, Keegan-Michael Key, will be one of those 14 newbies this season. The thing that makes Keegan different from the other first-timers this season is that he’ll have the most experience doing sketch comedy when he steps onto the stage at Studio 8-H tonight. Keegan-Michael Key was the “Key” half of the sketch comedy team of Keegan-Michael Key & Jordan Peele who for five years had their own sketch series on Comedy Central called…wait for it…”Key & Peele.”

“Key & Peele” was huge part of the CC lineup from 2012 to 2015. It also brought home two Primetime Emmy Awards for its final season including the Emmy for Outstanding Variety Sketch Series. The audience would totally pop tonight if Key’s partner Jordan Peele did a surprise appearance in a sketch tonight. And if Peele does reunite with Key on this evening’s all-new Saturday Night Live, why not also bring back some of the recurring characters that Key & Peele played on their own variety series!?

Of course, it’s a possibility for host Keegan-Michael Key to reprise some of the characters he was personally best known for on “Key & Peele” and put them in an SNL setting. Be on the lookout tonight for Key characters like the always suspicious substitute teacher Mr. Garvey, along with DeVon who was Key’s weirdo landlord character or Brock Flavors who was a TV reporter played by Key on “Key & Peele” who was always caught off guard.

Keegan-Michael Key’s most popular character from “Key & Peele” was probably Luther who was President Obama’s anger translator. Since President Obama was so low-key, (pun not intended, but greatly appreciated) Luther would interpret what the President was saying on the inside and then give its angry translation. Key even got to perform his “Luther” character alongside the real Barack Obama at the 2015 White House Correspondents’ Dinner. It was the hit of the night.

For those of you who never saw an episode of “Key & Peele“, you may remember Keegan as a cast member on “MADtv” for 5 seasons. He’s also done a lot of voicework in hit animated features like “The Lego Movie“, “Toy Story 4“, “The Angry Birds Movie” and a couple of the sequels in Adam Sandler’s “Hotel Transylvania” animated comedies.

Most recently, Keegan-Michael Key was seen in “Prom“, the Netflix musical comedy nominated for two Golden Globe awards. Keegan played Principal Tom Hawkins, the love interest of Meryl Streep’s character Dee Dee Allen. “Prom” was good practice for Keegan-Michael Key’s next musical comedy project.

You see kids, there’s more to the story of Keegan-Michael Key hosting one of the last Saturday Night Live episodes of the season than just Key being a sketch comedy expert. And that involves the latest project from SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels which Keegan-Michael Key will be promoting tonight.

Lorne Michaels is the executive producer on a new Apple TV+ summer series starring Keegan-Michael Key from Lorne’s production company Broadway Video. It’s a musical-comedy series called “Schmigadoon!” The series is a salute to the iconic Hollywood studio musicals of the 1940’s when that genre of films was in its Golden Age. “Schmigadoon!” takes its name from and parodies the 1947 Broadway musical “Brigadoon” which was turned into a major motion picture in 1954 and starred screen legends Gene Kelly, Cyd Charisse and Van Johnson. The movie version of “Brigadoon” was nominated for 3 Oscars.

“Schmigadoon!” stars Keegan-Michael Key and current SNL cast member Cecily Strong. According to an Apple TV+ press release, Key and Strong star as a couple who venture out on “a backpacking trip designed to reinvigorate their relationship when they discover a magical town in which everyone is living in a studio musical from the 1940s.” The couple also quickly learn that they can’t leave the village of Schmigadoon until they find “true love.”

Besides Keegan-Michael Key and Cecily Strong (who gets a producer credit), “Schmigadoon!” also stars Alan Cumming, Fred Armisen, Kristin Chenoweth, the hilarious Aaron Tveit, Dove Cameron, Ariana DeBose and Jane Krakowski of “30 Rock” fame. “Schmigadoon!” premieres Friday, July 16th on Apple TV+ with the release of the first 2 episodes and then a new episode each Friday after that for a total of 6 episodes to complete the first season. The series was co-created by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio with the first season directed by Barry Sonnenfeld.

Looking at the rest of tonight’s brand new and quite live SNL, some of the things in the news that the writing staff might incorporate into this evening’s show include the CDC’s announcement that fully vaccinated people can stop wearing masks in most indoor public places, Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit testing positive for steroids, and House Republicans voting to throw Rep. Liz Cheney completely under a bus and stripping her of her party leadership position. And in DC, you never want to hear the words “Cheney” and “strip” together.

SNL never misses a chance to rib Donald Trump and there’s a couple of stories involving the 2-time popular vote loser that might be covered on Weekend Update tonight including the Trumpster spending the summer at his golf club in New Jersey. Trump was also named as an employee of his criminal lair known as Mar-a-Lago in Florida making it okay to live there under state law.

In sadder political news, (and it’s difficult to get sadder than Trump), Bo Obama, the Obama family dog, passed away. Bo was the puppy the Obama daughters received as a campaign promise when their dad ran for President in 2008. And speaking of animals, a tiger (yes, an actual tiger) is still missing after being spotted running loose in a Houston neighborhood.

Other current events that might be covered by Colin Jost and Michael Che on Weekend Update tonight include McDonald’s teaming with the Biden Administration to sell coffee cups advertising the Covid vaccine, Bill Maher contracting Covid despite being fully vaccinated, the world’s oldest organ donor donating his 95 year old liver, 60% of Japanese citizens not wanting Tokyo to host the 2021 Olympics, Chicago releasing 1,000 feral cats to deal with the city’s rat problem, a wax figure of Wendy Williams premiering at Madame Tussauds, and Tim Tebow possibly returning to the NFL with the Jacksonville Jaguars to play both tight end and media distraction.

Just scroll down a little bit more and you’ll find the promos that Keegan-Michael Key did for tonight’s brand new Saturday Night Live. He’s joined by musical guest Olivia Rodrigo and SNL cast member Kate McKinnon. There’s some big promises being kicked around in the first promo. None bigger than Kate promising this will be the best SNL in 46 years. Come on Kate. It’s kinda hard to top that Saturday Night Live where Ashlee Simpson got caught lip-syncing. That’s a pure fan favorite.

The next promo brings up the conversation we had about old characters making an appearance tonight. What’s really unexpected is that it could happen during this evening’s musical performances. Plus, there’s a shout out to an MSNBC favorite who we find out is also an officemate with Kate McKinnon. Huh. The more you know.

Keegan-Michael Key hosts a brand new episode of Saturday Night Live tonight with musical guest Olivia Rodrigo. It’s new. It’s live. And it happens at 11:30pm et and live across all American time zones this evening on NBC.

And next week, it’s the SNL – Season 46 Grand Finale hosted by the star of “The Queen’s Gambit” on Netflix, Anya Taylor-Joy with musical guest Lil Nas X.

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Ernie Tripper
Ernie Tripper