Sunday, July 26, 2026

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

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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!

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009, where he covered Michael Jackson, and previously wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine in the mid-1990s, where he covered the O.J. Simpson trial. He also edited Fame magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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