Who is Hosting Saturday Night Live Tonight: October 10, 2020

Published by Ernie Tripper at October 10, 2020

After a week of drama surrounding the musical guest, Saturday Night Live is set to go live tonight with your host, headlining comedian, actor, writer, and podcaster extraordinaire Bill Burr!

Normally, we usually start out talking about tonight’s SNL host and his or her background, current projects and previous, if any, Saturday Night Live experience. Not today. This past week, the big news has been this weekend’s Saturday Night Live musical guest.

It was announced on Wednesday that this week’s musical guest, rising country star Morgan Wallen, was no longer performing on tonight’s episode of Saturday Night Live. It was Morgan Wallen himself who broke the disappointing news on Instagram that Saturday Night Live had withdrawn their invitation for him to be tonight’s musical guest on the show.

The way the story goes, SNL pulled the plug on Morgan Wallen’s appearance after videos of him surfaced on social media partying without social distancing or wearing a mask. Easily recognizable and seen on TikTok, Wallen was celebrating in a crowded bar after attending the Alabama – Texas A&M game and obviously thinking that plenty of alcohol and a mullet were better protection against the Covid virus than social distancing and a mask.

SNL decided to rescind their offer to be musical guest on this evening’s Bill Burr-hosted show due to his blatant disregard for the show’s coronavirus guidelines. Even though Morgan Wallen claims to have tested negative for the virus, his actions still endangered the safety of the Saturday Night Live cast and crew. And SNL Executive Producer Lorne Michaels wasn’t having it, or Morgan Wallen on his show.

In his Instagram video, Morgan Wallen came across as emotional, disappointed and blamed no one but himself, saying his behavior “obviously affected my long-term goals and my dreams.” He added, “I respect the show’s decision because I know that I put them in jeopardy, and I take ownership for this.”

Wallen sounded more like celebrity who had gotten a DUI or was caught cheating on his wife. He apologized and included standard Mea Culpa lines like, “I’ve lost myself a little bit. I’ve tried to find joy in the wrong places. I don’t know. And it’s left me with less joy. So, I’m gonna go try to work on that.” He added, “It may be a second before you hear from me, for awhile. But uh, I’m gonna go…I’m gonna go work on me. And I appreciate y’all respecting that.” Totally sounding like a standard celebrity “I’m off to rehab” speech. This is all bound to make it into a hit country song before it’s over.

The singer who was named the 2020 iHeart Radio Country Music Awards Best New Artist and who could have used the exposure that a Saturday Night Live performance brings, said that in a private conversation, EP Lorne Michaels offered him “encouragement” and Wallen said the SNL EP told him there might be a chance to appear on SNL in the future.

Following all that, the question became “Who will be filling in as SNL musical guest tonight!?” Saturday Night Live‘s Lorne Michaels gave NBC News’ Willie Geist the answer regarding Morgan Wallen’s replacement or perhaps replacement(s) on Friday’s edition of the “Today Show.”

The SNL EP told Geist, “We’re still in the middle of it. I know Jack White is coming in. And, there could be some other stuff.” So, Jack White of the White Stripes fame will be the last minute musical guest on tonight’s Saturday Night Live. Lorne Michaels said finding a replacement with only a day or two’s notice isn’t easy. He said, “calling somebody on a Thursday to be here for Friday, you know, is complicated. It has to be people who are ready to go.”

And Jack White may not be the only artist filling in for excused Morgan Wallen. Willie Geist added that Lorne Michaels “is still working on another couple of big names that may show up.”

This will be Jack White’s third solo gig as an SNL musical guest and his fourth appearance overall. Even though this all happened last second, it doesn’t mean that Jack White doesn’t have a project to promote on the show tonight. “The White Stripes Greatest Hits” collection will be released December 4, 2020.

Now back to tonight’s host, Bill Burr, who will more than likely incorporate the SNL / Morgan Wallen situation into his monologue this evening. The nationally touring (when we’re not having a pandemic) headlining comedian has no problem pointing out really uncomfortable moments in his stand up. He lives for them.

Bill Burr is hosting Saturday Night Live for his very first time tonight. That’s just one more thing for Burr to cross off his show business to-do list. Burr seems to have his hands in almost every part of the comedy business.

We mentioned his stand up career. Bill Burr has six stand up comedy specials of his own. His first full-hour special was released in 2008 called “Bill Burr: Why Do I Do This?” and his next came two years later in 2010, called “Bill Burr: Let It Go“. He beat Disney and the cartoon film “Frozen” by 5 years with that title.

His next four stand up specials were all done as part of a huge stand up comedy deal with Netflix. His Netflix comedy hours include “Bill Burr: You People Are All the Same” (2012), “Bill Burr: I’m Sorry You Feel That Way” (2014), “Bill Burr: Walk Your Way Out” (2017) and last year’s “Bill Burr: Paper Tiger.”

Tonight’s SNL host Bill Burr has also become a major player as a producer putting together specials with other comedians he presents including Jessica Kirson, Ian Edwards, Whitney Cummings and Paul Virzi among others, along with his comedy showcase series, “Bill Burr Presents: The Ringers” done for Comedy Central.

It doesn’t even have to be real-life comedy to interest Bill Burr. He’s the creator, producer, writer and voice-talent for the hit Netflix animated series “F is for Family“, currently streaming on the platform. Bill is currently working on the series fifth and final season for Netflix.

Bill Burr also has one of the longest running podcasts in the podcast biz. Bill hosts the “Monday Morning Podcast” and its popular spin-off the “Thursday Afternoon Monday Morning Podcast“. Bill’s been hosting MMP since 2007. This led to Bill Burr becoming a podcast entrepreneur. In 2012, Bill and Al Madrigal began All Things Comedy, a digital media studio and network that’s currently home to over 50 comedians and their podcast dreams.

And if that wasn’t enough to keep Bill Burr busy, he’s now expanding his acting résumé. He’s appeared in films like “The Front Runner“, “Daddy’s Home“, “Walk of Shame“, “The Heat” and “Date Night“. Most recently, Bill Burr got rave reviews for his performance in the movie “The King of Staten Island“, starring Saturday Night Live cast member Pete Davidson. Watch for Bill and Pete to have some interaction during tonight’s all-new SNL.

Bill Burr has also brought his comedy and acting skills to television as well. He’s had roles on “Kroll Show“, “New Girl“, “Crashing“, and last season on the Disney+ breakout series, “The Mandalorian.” And tonight, he adds hosting Saturday Night Live to his already impressive and diverse comedy portfolio.

With so much insane news happening right now, Saturday Night Live won’t possibly be able to incorporate all of it into tonight’s new show. One thing that is sure to be mentioned at least on Weekend Update is Donald Trump’s adventure in Covid-land following his diagnosis with the deadly virus along with his trip to Walter Reed Hospital and all the photo-ops that go along with being not only a Coronavirus patient, but the POTUS at the same time.

It’s not certain if Alec Baldwin will be back on tonight’s show, but Saturday Night Live may also do something with Trump doing his best Benito Mussolini impression on the White House balcony after getting home from the hospital, tearing off his protective mask and gasping for air like the goldfish in the 2012 “Fish Out of Water” asthma PSA.

The Vice-Presidential debate between Mike Pence and Senator Kamala Harris is sure to be a big topic on SNL this evening including the star of the debate, the fly that landed on Mike Pence’s head and made itself at home on his tight, white hairdo for over two minutes.

While social media is collectively demanding that Jeff Goldblum make a cameo appearance and reprise his role as Brundle-Fly from 1986’s version of “The Fly” co-starring Geena Davis, this might be a different approach. Maybe show footage of the fly on Pence’s head and keep zooming in for close-up when all of a sudden we see that it’s not a fly at all. It’s Kate McKinnon doing her famous impression of the late and legendary Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and instead of a fly’s wings, we see she’s wearing angel wings. Guaranteed laughs and sentimental tears.

Other topics that Weekend Update anchormen Colin Jost and Michael Che may do commentary on tonight include the video that let us get another peek at the dysfunctional Conway family with presidential adviser Kellyanne Conway screaming at her daughter Claudia who tipped the world off to President Trump’s alleged Coronavirus condition. There’s also Netflix beginning to stream its Christmas movies in October, John Lennon’s 80th birthday anniversary, the “Silence of the Lambs” house going up for sale, and 6 time Super Bowl Champion quarterback Tom Brady and the Buccaneers somehow forgetting how many downs a team gets in professional football.

On a sad note, at some point during tonight’s live show, we can expect Saturday Night Live to pay tribute to the guitar god, Eddie Van Halen who passed away this past week at age 65. It sounds like crazy-talk, but Van Halen was never booked as an SNL musical guest in over 4 decades of variety entertainment.

In fact, when Van Halen performed “Jump” on “Ellen” in 2015 to an audience of screaming house-moms, David Lee Roth told Ellen DeGeneres it was their first time performing on American television. What the hell was wrong with you, American television!? So even though Van Halen never played SNL, Eddie Van Halen gave Saturday Night Live and its band one of its more memorable moments over the past 46 seasons.

It was February 28, 1987 when Eddie’s then-wife Valerie Bertinelli hosted Saturday Night Live during SNL – Season 12. According to former Saturday Night Live band leader and music director (1985 till 1995) G.E. Smith, Eddie Van Halen escorted his wife to 30 Rock while she hosted the show. Eddie hung out in the band room and began rifting with G.E. Smith and then with Lenny Pickett arranging the horn section, together they came up with a track called “Stompin’ 8H.”

During that 1987 show, Valerie Bertinelli proudly introduced the Saturday Night Live Band with her “best friend Eddie Van Halen” who performed the track that came out of a backstage rift in the SNL band room. Since this week’s musical guest, Covid daredevil Morgan Wallen was cancelled, it would be really touching tonight if Saturday Night Live replayed that musical highlight featuring the man who changed rock music and died way too young this past week, Eddie Van Halen.

Also, with Jack White now locked in as the musical guest along with a couple of possible other surprises, we could see tonight’s musical segments turn into a tribute to the late Eddie Van Halen. Jack White has never shied away from showing his love and respect for Eddie and he even recently used a “Wolfgang Special” custom guitar and a 5150 amp to record new music, as well as other equipment from EVH Gear, Eddie Van Halen’s signature brand musical instruments and equipment.

The promos for tonight’s all-new episode of Saturday Night Live are just below and ready for your viewing pleasure. Besides SNL‘s promos, we also have the very public video apology from singer / songwriter Morgan Wallen which he uploaded to Instagram. It includes Wallen’s announcement that he was bumped from tonight’s show and includes an “I’m sorry. I was wrong” speech which could put Hugh Grant and Bill Clinton’s Mea Culpa speeches to shame.

Next is a quick promo tweeted out by Saturday Night Live showing Maya Rudolph getting into makeup and wardrobe to become Democratic Vice-Presidential nominee Senator Kamala Harris. The tweet included a very non-cryptic message saying, “This Saturday. @MayaRudolph is back to debate.”

This pretty much guarantees that the SNL – Cold Open or one of the other sketches tonight, will parody this past week’s Vice-Presidential Debate between Senator Harris and Veep-Beep Mike Pence. Although in SNL‘s version, it will be Maya Rudolph and cast member Beck Bennett who’s in charge of impersonating the current real Vice-President.

The final set of promos feature host Bill Burr and cast member Kenan Thompson following NBC’s very strict mask protocols. In the promos, Bill’s volume is at its normal setting of 11. As we mentioned, Bill Burr isn’t afraid of awkward moments. He thrives on them. Even the ones that include awkward SNL promos. Next, Bill is already trying to take advantage of the confusion regarding this week’s musical guest. He’s offering to step in to do double-duty, but even with masks on, it still looks like a “clear no.”

Bill Burr is hosting a brand new episode of Saturday Night Live tonight with musical guest Jack White, and maybe some other musical surprises if Lorne Michaels worked the phones like we know he can do. It all starts this evening at 11:30pm et and it’s live coast-to-coast on NBC.