Sunday, October 6, 2024

“SNL”: Lorne Michaels Books Powerhouse Stars for 50th Anniversary Including Billie Eilish, Jelly Roll, John Mulaney (Says It’s News To Him)

Share

Lorne Michaels will leave no stone unturned for the 50th anniversary of “Saturday Night Live.”

The season begins September 28th with Jean Smart hosting, and Jelly Roll as musical guest.

“SNL” will return October 5th with comedian Nate Bergatze and Coldplay who are releasing a new album. Will Dakota Johnson be there?

The next week, October 12th, brings Ariana Grande as host, plugging “Wicked.” and Stevie Nicks. Will Stevie dress as a good witch or bad one? Such a great themed pairing. Maybe they’ll sing a duet on “Stop Dragging My Heart Around.” This is very interesting for Michaels, who doesn’t book rock legacy acts. Maybe we’ll see more of them this year. Great idea.

October 19th we get host Michael Keaton, so hot off of the $200 million “Beetlejuice” sequel. Superstar Billie Eilish, looking for Grammy nominations for her “Hit Me Hard and Hit Me Soft ” album will be the musical guest.

Then rounding out the early fall will be a November 2nd show with John Mulaney as host and the very hot Chappell Roan as music star. Wow. Mulaney joked on Twitter, “This is the first I’m hearing of this.”

If these shows don’t get big numbers, what can you do? Michaels is going all out this season, obviously. He’s even signed alumnus Maya Rudolph to play Kamala Harris. Bowen Yang as JD Vance?) We can’t to see what he does with the show’s prime time special next February!

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.

Read more

In Other News