For the third straight week, there will be no new episode of Saturday Night Live tonight. Currently on an extended hiatus before the final batch of episodes for the season, the hit sketch comedy show will return on May 8th. In fact, the Lorne Michaels-led show will likely dominate much of the news cycle for the next week for its choice in hiring Elon Musk as its host.
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As with previous weeks where no new episodes are scheduled, NBC will instead air two encores in its place. Beginning at 10 p.m. Eastern, an episode from 2015 featuring Taraji P. Henson and Mumford & Sons will air. In the show’s normal time slot at 11:30 p.m. Eastern, there’s another encore scheduled, though NBC hasn’t revealed which one will air ahead of time. Typically the second slot is reserved for a rerun from the current season the show is on.
The serial entrepreneur is set to make his hosting debut on the May 8th return episode, alongside Miley Cyrus as musical guest. It will be Cyrus’ seventh time on the series after having hosted the show once, pulled both hosting and musical duties on the same night twice, and served as musical guest three times prior to the May 8th episode.
Naturally, news of Musk’s temporary SNL job wasn’t received well by fans because of the billionaire’s controversial persona. Even some members of the show have expressed their displeasure with the hiring.
In an Instagram Story slide that’s now since disappeared, Saturday Night Live fan-favorite Bowen Yang asked “What the f-ck does this even mean?” while sharing a screenshot of Musk’s tweet that read, “Let’s find out just how live Saturday Night Live really is.”
dying at bowen yang’s instagram stories after snl announced elon musk is hosting pic.twitter.com/6VVQ47frkR
โ megan (@chaoticmlkhotel) April 25, 2021
Now a week after the initial announcement, Musk is starting to gather skit ideas from his 52 million Twitter followers. Ideas the mogul has shared on his own include a mashup between Baby Shark and Shark Tank, a superhero with the power of irony, and something about becoming the new face of Dogecoin.
Live will return with a new episode on May 8th at 11:30 p.m. Eastern time. The series broadcasts on NBC live from Studio 8H at 30 Rockefeller Plaza.