Saturday Night Live: Dave Chappelle Returning to Host

By Spencer Perry

During tonight's all-new episode of Saturday Night Live, the NBC comedy confirmed next week's host and musical guest, revealing that comedian Dave Chappelle will return to host the show with musical guest Black Star also appearing. This marks Chappelle's third time as host for the series, and also his third time hosting the show in an episode after a major United States election. Previously Chappelle hosted the show on November 12, 2016 following the election of Donald Trump as President and then again on November 7, 2020 after Joe Biden defeated Trump. The stand-up comedian also won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series both times.

Chappelle's previous episodes as host have largely been hot beds for political jokes, as one might expect considering the timing, but the comedian also made sure to reference some other things as well. His 2016 episode featured a Walking Dead parody where he reprised many of his Chapelle's Show characters. Depending on how the mid-term elections shake out this week the show could go one of two ways, celebratory or morose, Chappelle has hosted both versions already as well, and he's basically guaranteed an Emmy nomination for it already.

The return of Chappelle to Studio 8H marks the second week in a row that a host has been back to the show. Prior to Schumer's episode tonight the new season had largely been first-time hosts including Miles Teller, Brendan Gleeson, Megan Thee Stallion, and Jack Harlow/

Season 48 of Saturday Night Live has been one of the biggest in recent years in terms of new cast members. Over the summer a number of key players exited the show including Kyle Mooney,  Aidy Bryant, Pete Davidson, Kate McKinnon, Melissa Villaseñor, Aristotle Athari, Alex Moffat, and Chris Redd. The newcomers have already been introduced however and includes featured players Marcello Hernandez, Molly Kearney, Michael Longfellow, and Devon Walker. Colin Jost remains the head writer for the show and will continue to appear on Weekend Update alongside Michael Che. x

Saturday Night Live Season 48 is ongoing now with new episodes airing on both NBC and Peacock. All 47 seasons of Saturday Night Live are also now streaming on Peacock.    

(Photo by: Will Heath/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)

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