NEED TO KNOW
The hosts and musical guests for the December SNL shows have been announced
Ariana Grande will host the final episode of the year, the Christmas episode on Dec. 20, with musical guest Cher
Melissa McCarthy, Josh O’Connor and Lily Allen are also on the December slate
The final Saturday Night Live hosts and musical guests of the year have been announced.
On Monday, Nov. 17, the late-night sketch comedy show announced the slate for the remaining three shows of the year, which kicks off with Melissa McCarthy as host on Dec. 6, and Dijon will make his debut as musical guest.
It’ll be McCarthy’s sixth time hosting the show, but her first time since 2017. She’s since appeared many times in sketches, though, namely for impressions of former press secretary Sean Spicer.
The next week’s show, on Dec. 13, will be hosted by actor Josh O’Connor, who stars in the new installment of Rian Johnson’s Knives Out anthology, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.
Lily Allen will join the actor as musical guest. She just released her first album in seven years, West End Girl, last month, and the Dec. 13 show will mark only her second-ever appearance on SNL. She made her debut as musical guest in 2007 and sang “Smile” and “LDN.”
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The final SNL show of the year will be on Dec. 20. Ariana Grande will host, and Cher will be the night’s musical guest.
This is only the second time Cher has been musical guest — she made her debut in 1987 — though she did perform as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations in February.
Grande, 32, has hosted twice before, in 2016 and 2024, and has been musical guest twice.
Glen Powell hosted the Nov. 15 episode of SNL, with musical guest Olivia Dean. He told PEOPLE before hosting the show that he was “so excited” to take the stage.
“Hosting SNL has been a thing I’ve wanted to do my entire life,” the actor admitted. “I’ve been waiting to be on that stage for as long as I can remember.”
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“It’s a really wonderful moment when your childhood dreams get to come true,” Powell added.
During his monologue, he revealed that he’d actually been asked to host four years prior, when Top Gun: Maverick was coming out, but a delay in the movie’s premiere led to that being scrapped.
He had already told a UPS driver, who coincidentally arrived to deliver a package when Powell got the exciting news about the hosting gig, so he made sure to bring him along for his real debut.
“So to prove to Mitch that I am not a liar, I flew him all the way to New York,” Powell, 37, said about the UPS driver. “He thought it was a scam, but he still came and he is sitting in the audience tonight.”
“I had to wait my entire life plus four years to be here, but if I have learned anything, it’s that the best things in life don’t happen overnight — and no one knows that better than UPS.”
Saturday Night Live airs Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.
