Saturday Night Live: Austin Butler Hosts Last Episode of Year

The calendar reads December 17th, which means Saturday Night Live‘s last new episode of the year will soon air. After tonight’s episode, SNL will go on a month-long break before reuniting at 30 Rock in mid to late January. Elvis star Austin Butler is making his hosting debut at Studio 8H alongside musical guest Lizzo.

Given it’s the show’s annual holiday episode, big surprises are likely in store. While no cameos have been teased ahead of the show, people should be able to expect at least one tradition to take place: Colin Jost and Michael Che’s exchanging of joke-writing duties on the show’s “Weekend Update” segment. The Lorne Michaels-led show has yet to reveal when it will return exactly, or who the host will be upon the show’s return.

Why did Lizzo replace the Yeah Yeah Yeahs on SNL?

Tonight’s 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 rockers 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.