Who is Hosting Saturday Night Live Tonight: May 9, 2020

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Tonight, Saturday Night Live wraps up its most bizarre season ever with the SNL at Home – Season 45 Finale!!

Saturday Night Live has decided to pull the plug on a season that was shutdown in March and has only produced two new shows since March 7th, not including tonight’s SNL 45 – Season Finale.

SNL is coming across the Season 45 finish line with only 18 episodes altogether for the entire season. That’s 3 shows shy of what a normal SNL season delivers. The show is also wrapping on May 9th when usually the award winning variety series takes us to at least towards the end of May before we’re deluged with Saturday Night Live repeat episodes for the summer until the last weekend of September when everything picks up fresh again. No one can even know at this point if the new fall season premiere for SNL 46 will start on time.

The strain of doing the show including writing and performing bits and then remotely producing them is becoming too much and SNL has decided to cut bait shy of a full season. And it’s not like they’ll get into trouble for not turning in their homework. After all, none of the scripted shows on the network have done any new episodes at all since the shutdown. SNL will get credit for at least trying.

An SNL Season Finale is always a spectacle and this one should be no different. It’s just that it’s going look like one of those “Proms from Home” that high schools across the country are trying to pull off. While it’s touching and impressive what they’re able to do, there’s still a little sadness involved with how it’s just not the real thing.

No host has been announced for the SNL at Home Season 45 Finale. The first of its three at-home shows featured SNL hosting vet, Coronavirus survivor and proclaimed “America’s Dad” Tom Hanks doing an uplifting monologue and then all the transitions to the musical guest Chris Martin and finally a quick “good night.”

The second episode to fly under the #SNLAtHome hashtag, opened with Brad Pitt as White House expert and national immunologist Dr. Fauci. And even though it was a fun cameo with Dr. Fauci’s wish for who should play him on SNL coming true, Pitt wasn’t credited as being the host of that show. It’s like there are no rules in the wild west of Corona-America.

So we will see if tonight’s SNL – Season 45 Finale gives us a surprise host that makes everyone squeal with comedy delight. Even if we don’t get a secret host this evening like Hanksy, we can expect plenty of cameos tonight as SNL At Home tries to pull every trick out of their protective masks that they can for the last show of season.

One of the biggest disappointments tonight has to be that there will be no Saturday Night Live Season Finale After-Party. That’s a letdown for both the cast and the fans alike. At the end of each season, SNL creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels throws one of the biggest and best parties of the year. Sorry Lorne, you won’t be getting that entertainment expense tax write-off for next April 15th. Plus, there’s always some rock legend who shows up to perform with the house band while the cast members and other celebrity guests (Jimmy Fallon) take the stage to belt out a number as well.

Then the next day, on a very hungover Sunday, we get “leaked” footage of the party all over social media showing the cast and other stars blowing off a season worth of steamy tension in one night. None of that is happening this weekend. The Coronavirus has made sure we are denied even that simple gossipy pleasure. And that sucks.

In the two weeks since we last had an SNL At Home show, there’s been plenty going on in Washington DC in politics and across the country and Hollywood for the cast and writers on SNL to try to stitch together a comedy show from home tonight. Weekend Update especially has plenty of real life material to work with for this evening’s edition of Saturday Night Live‘s funny newscast.

Some of the bigger Trump stories that SNL has to be looking at for material tonight include the President’s personal White House valet who has been serving Donald Trump his buckets of KFC, testing positive for the Coronavirus. We’ll have to see if one of the SNL cast members decides to play the valet tonight for a Weekend Update FaceTime interview.

News anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che are sure to mention Trump awkwardly sitting down for an interview at the Lincoln Memorial with the mammoth statue of the Great Emancipator looking down on him the same way Fred Christ Trump (real middle name) used to look at him when he was a young orange boy.

Then there’s Trumpy canceling the Coronavirus Task Force and then un-cancelling it after claiming it’s really popular with people. He’s right. And we can’t we wait for the White House Coronavirus Task Force trading cards to come out. Collect them all! “I’ll trade you two Dr. Deborah Birx’s for a Mike Pence!” Plus, the White House gift shop is now selling a Coronavirus Commemorative Coin with Trump’s name on one side. His name has to be on the “tails” side.

Other real news that might make it onto SNL Weekend Update‘s fake news includes a Florida man hanging out on beaches in the Sunshine State dressed as the Grim Reaper, South Korea now reporting Kim Jong Un is alive and well, retired Pope Benedict coming out of his crypt to announce that legalized gay marriage is the Anti-Christ and Wendy’s running out of meat and no longer selling hamburgers at some California locations.

We also have the story fascinating everyone with North America being invaded by deadly warms of hornets that wipe of colonies of bees known as the “Murder Hornets” which sounds like the name of a minor league hockey team. It makes us wonder if SNL still has the bee costumes that the original cast of Not Ready for Prime Time Players would wear on the show in the 70’s. Hopefully those were over-nighted to the current cast to play the Murder Hornets.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was hospitalized earlier this week for a gallbladder condition which she shook off like a champ. Kate McKinnon might want to bring out her Ginsburg impression one more time this season. Plus, we have the Supreme Court broadcasting a session live for the first time and then the sound of a toilet flushing was overheard during the proceedings. Our money is on it being Kavanaugh that was on the can. Maybe the cast wants to put on robes and impersonate the entire SCOTUS bench tonight.

Other Coronavirus news that might make its way onto the SNL Season Finale tonight include the constant on-air bickering between CNN anchor Chris Cuomo and his big brother New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (the most popular politician in America) whenever they’re on TV together, along with West Virginia Governor Jim Justice allegedly dropping the F-bomb during a press conference while giving a virus update for his state and Jet Blue becoming the first airline to require that all passengers wear a face-mask on their flights.

Other political news includes Tara Reade (not the fun party one) sitting down for an announced future interview with Megyn Kelly to talk about her accusations against former Veep Joe Biden who allegedly got too touchy-feely with her.

Show biz news stories like Nicolas Cage playing the “Tiger King” Joe Exotic in a new television mini-series. It seems like it takes a nut to play a nut. Joe Exotic could also play Nic Cage. It’s a great chance for a cameo appearance by former cast member Andy Samberg if he wants to revive his Nic Cage impression on SNL.

Plus, Tom Cruise will film one of his next projects on the International Space Station and the movie will also be helped by SpaceX founder Elon Musk. And speaking of inventor, entrepreneur and real life Lex Luthor, Elon Musk and his wife named their new baby, “X Æ A-12” which has got to be hard for Weekend Update to ignore.

In other baby related current events, the news team could have punchlines regarding Anderson Cooper showing up on TV with a new baby boy out of nowhere, Richard Gere becoming a father at age 70 and Rupert Grint who played Ron Weasley in the “Harry Potter” films becoming a first-time dad. Hopefully the baby doesn’t turn out to be a muggle.

Other stories that Jost and Che might touch on include ESPN airing South Korean baseball games to fill its need for sports, streaming movies being eligible for the Best Picture Oscar this year, Britney Spears admitting to burning down her home gym with a couple of ill-placed candles, Dunkin’ Donuts selling DIY Donut kits and Georgia teenagers getting handed their driver’s licenses with no road test all in the name of safe social distancing.

And perhaps cast member Aidy Bryant will do an at-home sketch about celebrating her birthday in social quarantine last Thursday instead of out on the town in NYC. Happy birthday Lil’ Baby Aidy!

Of course, Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che may continue their tradition of doing jokes that couldn’t make it on their newscast earlier in the season. The SNL anchors traditionally end each season with that bit. Also, each of the SNL At Home shows so far have included Jost and Che swapping jokes they’ve written for each other. So don’t be surprised to see that gimmick again tonight.

There’s a promo for tonight’s Saturday Night Live at Home Season Finale. It starts with the cast all yelling “Live from New York! It’s Saturday Night!” Except no one is yelling it at the same time. The promo shows some of the hardships in trying to do an episode of SNL from home including cast member Kate McKinnon fumbling with a homemade green screen and bits being interrupted by pets and car horns. And unfortunately, cast member Heidi Gardner gets the worst of it. Watch below and see.

And here’s a programming note. The Saturday Night Live Mother’s Day Special will air this Sunday at 9pm et on NBC. It’s all of SNL’s favorite Mother’s Day sketches including the “Dick in a Box” guys and the Saturday Night Live cast’s mothers roll call. If you can’t be with your mom on Sunday, watch some funny ones instead. Here’s the promo SNL tweeted out for the Mother’s Day special.

Tonight, Saturday Night Live is all new! It’s the SNL at Home Season 45 Finale starting at 11:30pm et and live across all American time zones and only on NBC!

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Ernie Tripper
Ernie Tripper