Who is Hosting Saturday Night Live Tonight: September 28, 2019

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Tonight, Saturday Night Live kicks off its 45th Season with the SNL premiere hosted by Woody Harrelson!!

Saturday Night Live is back tonight at 11:30pm et on NBC with Woody Harrelson who’s back to host SNL for his 4th time. This evening, Woody will be promoting his new comedy movie, “Zombieland: Double Tap“, the follow-up to his 2009 comedy horror hit, “Zombieland“. Wow. Has it been 10 years since we’ve gotten a Woody Harrelson living dead comedy!? Feels like yesterday.

The sequel “Zombieland: Double Tap,” which is out in theaters nationwide on Friday, October 18th, features Woody Harrelson’s co-stars from the original; Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin and Bill Murray. Being the SNL season premiere and such a special occasion, we wouldn’t be surprised to see one or more of Woody Harrelson’s cast mates from the upcoming movie showing up tonight to support his 4th hosting gig. It’s happened before when Woody hosted SNL to promote one of “The Hunger Games” movies when his co-stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth joined him on stage for his musical monologue.

Woody Harrelson’s first time hosting Saturday Night Live was back in Season 15 on November 18, 1989 during the height of his popularity as TV’s favorite dim-witted bartender on “Cheers“. He returned 3 years later on May 16, 1992 during SNL – Season 17 when he hosted the Saturday Night Live Season Finale following his breakout film, the comedy hit “White Men Can’t Jump” co-starring Wesley Snipes. Woody Harrelson’s third trip to Studio 8-H to host Saturday Night Live didn’t happened for another 22 years when he returned on November 15, 2014 to promote the latest installment of the “Hunger Games” film series, “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1.”

After tonight’s show, Woody Harrelson will be one show away from earning membership in the Saturday Night Live Five Timers Club. Let’s fast track Woody on the hosting list for next season and let’s get that Five Timers smoking jacket monogrammed, pressed and ready to go.

There’s plenty to speculate about what will be a part pf tonight’s Saturday Night Live season premiere. The President Trump – Whistleblower scandal and presidential impeachment investigation has landed right in SNL‘s lap just in time for the season premiere. Will Saturday Night Live go with its standard “Donald Trump” cold opens that have become the norm since 2016 when Trump announced his candidacy? If so, who’s going to play our 45th President on Saturday Night Live this season? Alec Baldwin has declared he no longer wants to put on the ridiculous blonde wig and orange pancake makeup on SNL anymore. Will Lorne Michaels talk him into returning? Will Saturday Night Live bring in a brand new Donald Trump? Baldwin suggested Anthony Atamanuik take over the Trump impression on SNL. Atamanuik would be perfect. He’s toured playing Donald Trump along with James Adomian who played Bernie Sanders. And Atamanuik most famously played Trump on Comedy Central’s “The President Show“. Or will SNL look to the past, and bring back their house announcer and former cast member Darrell Hammond to reprise his Trump impersonation?

Other changes to look for tonight on the new season of Saturday Night Live include one less repertory player due to Leslie Jones leaving SNL to host a game show. Meanwhile, featured cast members Chris Redd and Heidi Gardner have been promoted to full cast status as of tonight. Ego Nwodim who just joined SNL at the beginning of last season will remain a featured player.

On the topic of SNL featured players, it will be very interesting to see if Saturday Night Live mentions the elephant in the room on tonight’s premiere episode. Leading up to this evening’s show, Saturday Night Live announced the hiring of three new featured cast members, Bowen Yang, Chloe Fineman and Shane Gillis. Just 4 days later, Shane Gillis was already fired from SNL after it was revealed that he had made jokes at the expense of Chinese people including presidential candidate Andrew Yang as well as other minority groups on his own online show “Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast” along with other podcasts.

A bit that would have shown that SNL could laugh at itself would have been for host Woody Harrelson to introduce the three new featured cast members tonight and when Shane Gillis is introduced, he walks on stage and stands smiling next to Bowen Yang, the first ever Chinese-American SNL cast member, and the show’s third openly gay male cast member, who then looks at Shane, displays absolute disgust and without saying a word, Bowen moves to the complete other side of the stage opposite Shane. Issued handled.

We can maybe hold out hope that we’re all just being played and Shane Gillis will appear on Weekend Update tonight, as part of the show, and with some sort of comedic apology bit like when cast member Pete Davidson and SNL caved to pressure and apologized to Congressman Dan Crenshaw after an ill-timed bit.

Other things going on in the world that could end up in sketches, SNL – Digital Shorts or on Weekend Update with anchormen Colin Jost and Michael Che tonight include the college admission scandal with celebrity mom / conspirator / nationally famous federal convict Felicity Huffman facing 14 days in prison with other convicted parents looking at up to 4 months. There’s also the Antonio Brown – NFL saga, the “Friends” 25th anniversary along with how the show hasn’t held up in the current cancel culture, the vaping epidemic, J. Lo and Shakira co-headling the Super Bowl Halftime Show, teen Climate Change activist sensation Greta Thunberg, the latest chapter in the scandalous past of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Joe Biden’s non-stop gaffes and anything else that happened during Saturday Night Live‘s summer hiatus.

We have the promos for tonight’s Saturday Night Live – Season 45 premiere for you to enjoy below. In the first released promo, Woody Harrelson welcomes tonight’s musical guest Billie Eilish to Saturday Night Live High School. Billie is the new kid and she’s got a lot to learn, like dealing with the SNL High bullies Colin Jost and Michael Che. Jost really needs to start working out if he’s going to be a bully. He also needs a shave before tonight’s show goes live. Plus as a bonus, we get to see now full cast member Heidi Gardner’s adorable new hairstyle!

The next promo features Woody with Billie Eilish as they discuss several firsts happening on tonight’s show. Finally as a bonus, Saturday Night Live has put out a two and a half minute “Best of Woody Harrelson Supercut” featuring all the greatest moments from Woody’s 3 previous times hosting SNL.

Tonight, it’s the Saturday Night Live Season 45 Premiere! Woody Harrelson hosts the beginning of the new SNL season with musical guest Billie Eilish live across all time zones at 11:30pm et on NBC!

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Ernie Tripper
Ernie Tripper