New year, new SNL hosts.
Photo-illustration: Vulture and Getty Images
Saturday Night Live has just announced its first three presenters and musical guests from 2021. The show will return to NBC on January 30 with first-time presenter John Krasinski, who will join the first musical guest Machine Gun Kelly. Krasinski was scheduled to present the program in March 2020, but his episode was canceled when SNL suspended production due to COVID-19 in the same month before pivoting for remote episodes.
The Krasinski episode will usher in five consecutive live episodes, all featuring first-time presenters and musical guests: Recent Emmy winner Dan Levy will be the host on February 6 alongside music guest Phoebe Bridgers and Regina King – currently promoting her debut as a feature film director One night in miami – will host on February 13 with Nathaniel Rateliff. The schedule for the episodes on February 20 and 27 has yet to be revealed.
Following your remote At home episodes from last season, SNL returned to the live episodes recorded within Studio 8H at the beginning of season 46 in October. The program reportedly paid members of the public to attend as a means of complying with the New York State Department of Health’s COVID guidelines, which prohibit live audiences “unless they consist only of paid employees, cast and crew.” The program did not comment on plans to return to remote episodes in 2021, despite New York State’s last ban on indoor dining in December and more than 400,000 COVID deaths across the country, so time will tell if another pivot for remote is close to the future program.