Saturday Night Live: Austin Butler Takes Centerstage in New Promo

By Adam Barnhardt

As we race to the holidays, Saturday Night Live is busy prepping its last show of the year. This Saturday, December 17th, features the hosting debut of Austin Butler on the live sketch comedy. Fresh off his appearance in Elvis as the eponymous rocker, Butler will kickoff holiday festivities with Lizzo.

SNL released its first promo of the episode on Wednesday, showing Butler as he strolls to the main stage at 30 Rock's Studio 8H. Serious throughout the duration as the actor takes in the sights, he's quickly approached by a couple of PA's as they hand him a mask and tell him to play the Christmas goblin. Butler's episode is the last SNL of the year before the cast and crew take an extended holiday break. It has yet to be seen when new SNL episodes will return.

Why did Lizzo replace the Yeah Yeah Yeahs on SNL?

The December 17th episode will be Lizzo's third time at 30 Rock as a musical guest. After debuting on the show during a 2019 episode, she both hosted and served as musical guest of a Season 47 episode earlier this spring. Now she's replacing indie rcokers, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs after one of the musicians was hospitalized with pneumonia.

"As many of our fans know Nick has had pneumonia over the past month and it's been an up and down recovery process," the band wrote in a statement on social media. "The band's top priority is supporting Nick through a full recovery, as a result we had to pull out from our engagements of KROQ's Acoustic Christmas and Saturday Night Live. YYYs have enjoyed the incredible highs of being supported on KROQ and the huge  honor of being chosen to close out SNL's 2022, we are deeply thankful and expectedly heartbroken we cannot rise to these occasions. It's been a rough week, and it's been a tough year on the health front for us alongside so many artists who are committed to connecting with audiences amidst a pandemic. We send our love to our fans and supporters, thank you for your understanding and well wishes, it means the world to us. Wishing you a healthy and happy rest of 2022, we're looking forward to a strong return in 2023." 

How to watch Saturday Night Live

Throughout the remainder of Season 48, currently expected to run through next May, NBC is simulcasting new episodes live on both NBC and Peacock. Peacock also serves as the streaming vault for all SNL episodes from its inception, with new episodes being added the day after they air.

Virtually every SNL episode, other than the select few locked away for good because of a variety of reasons, is now available to watch on the streaming service.

Trending Now: