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Keke Palmer hosted Saturday Night Live for the first time on Dec. 3, where she wasted no time in making her hosting gig one to remember.
The actress addressed online rumors that she was pregnant and announced that she is, indeed, expecting. A rep for Palmer confirmed the pregnancy to The Hollywood Reporter.
“People have been in my comments, saying, ‘Keke’s having a baby,’ ‘Keke’s pregnant,’ and I want to set the record straight,” Palmer said in her opening monologue. “I am!”
She went on to joke that she hates when people spread rumors about anyone, but it’s even worse when they’re right.
“I was trying so hard to keep it on the down-low ’cause I got a lot of stuff going on,” she said. “You know, people kept coming up to me, ‘Congratulations,’ and I’m like, ‘Shh, can y’all stop? I got a liquor sponsorship on the line.’”
She continued, saying that it’s been the “biggest blessing,” she’s “so excited,” and she wants to be a mom.
“Even though some people feel a little weird about me having a baby ’cause I was a child actor, I just wanna say, look, I’m 29. I’m grown. OK, I have sex. I own a home,” Palmer said, jokingly adding, “I stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6.”
She concluded that she’s the same person she’s always been, and she’s proud of that.
“When I first got into comedy, and I dreamed of standing on this stage, I asked myself, ‘Keke, who will you be? Will you be like Maya Rudolph? Eddie Murphy? A Kristen Wiig-Type?’ And now I can tell you exactly who I am: Baby, I’m Keke Palmer.”
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
SZA brought a couple surprises to her appearance Saturday Night Live on Dec. 3.
In addition to revealing the release date of her sophomore album, S.O.S, the TDE singer-songwriter also debuted a new song from the upcoming set.
For her first song during the Keke Palmer-hosted episode, SZA performed her recent single “Shirt,” which debuted at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 earlier this month. Toward the end of the moody song, where she performed against a starry background while flanked by two dancers, SZA cleverly snuck in some imagery announcing the Dec. 9 release date of her long-awaited second album, S.O.S.
Days earlier, SZA unveiled the project’s surreal cover art, which features the artist donning a sports jersey while sitting on the edge of a diving board planted over a large body of water. S.O.S follows her 2017 debut, Ctrl, which debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200.
For her second SNL performance, SZA gave another sneak peak of her upcoming album by debuting the new song “Blind.” This time around, the singer opted for a full backing band with strings, while delicately singing the beautiful track amid splashing waves and a hazy lighthouse. This marked SZA’s second SNL appearance following her debut in 2017 in support of Ctrl.
SZA recently covered Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players issue. In the cover story, she questioned her longevity in music and where she sees her career going forward.
“I feel like music, in this capacity, I don’t see longevity,” SZA admitted. “I like to create, I like to write, I like to sing, and I like to share. But I don’t know if chasing after superstardom or whatever I’m supposed to be doing right now is sustainable for me or for anybody. I’mma take a good swing at it, and I’mma give ’em my absolute best.”
Watch SZA’s SNL performances below. For those without cable, the broadcast streams on Peacock, which you can sign up for at the link here. Having a Peacock account also gives fans access to previous SNL episodes as well.
Ahead of the premiere of Saturday Night Live season 48, the late night comedy show lost eight of its castmembers, the biggest cast overhaul in a generation.
At the end of season 47 in May, Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, Kyle Mooney and Pete Davidson signed off of the sketch series for the last time. Their departures were followed by Alex Moffat, Melissa Villaseñor and Aristotle Athari in the summer and, finally, Chris Redd in September.
A few weeks before season 48 premiered in October, SNL shored up its ensemble with four new castmembers, who would join the show as featured players for the 2022-23 season: Marcello Hernandez, Molly Kearney, Michael Longfellow and Devon Walker.
According to standout Bowen Yang, having the new castmembers around has been “so seamless.”
“They’re just such a burst of fresh energy and also something familiar in terms of how quickly they’ve become part of it,” Yang told The Hollywood Reporter. “I look around, and I see Marcello, I see Michael, I see Devon, I see Molly, and I’m like, ‘Oh, these are my new friends.’ I feel they’ve been here forever.” He added that they’ve each also had great moments in the first few shows of the season.
Kenan Thompson echoed that sentiment, explaining that by the second half of the season, the four of them will already have a great deal of experience. “It’s a lot, and I’m glad that they have each other to kind of come into the storm with,” he told THR. “They’ve been navigating pretty good together.”
Mikey Day, who’s been on SNL since 2013, thinks the new castmembers are “really cool” but admitted it has been an adjustment, sharing that it’s different but also exciting.
“I definitely miss my friends and seeing them every week, but all our new castmembers are really cool,” Day told THR. “[It] feels like you bond very quickly on that show. In the summer, you’re like, ‘We’re gonna have new kids. Will it be the same?’ But then, a few days in, you’re like, ‘Oh OK, it’s this show again.’ So you know, it’s fun. Every season, you just keep going. You just get in the grind of it, and everything kind of starts to feel like the show.”
As for the new members, joining SNL has been an emotional experience in which they’ve already learned a lot. Walker noted that probably once a week he gets “misty” thinking about the fact that he made it onto the show. He’s also been given a helpful piece of advice, which is that there’s always another episode, so it’s not worth taking anything to heart.
“The words I’ve been living by are to be patient and to work,” Hernandez told THR. “And I love Kenan and Colin [Jost] for being there and being the veterans that talk to you and give you good advice. So yeah, I’m grateful.”
This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.
It’s a Saturday Night Live reunion on the upcoming That’s My Jam holiday special, with four former castmates joining their fellow alum, host Jimmy Fallon, for a Christmas music showdown.
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In an exclusive clip ahead of the special’s Monday premiere on NBC, Ana Gasteyer – an SNL castmember from 1996-2002 – puts a swinging, festive twist on Taylor Swift‘s “Blank Space.” When Gasteyer pulls the golden mic, she gets the Musical Genre Challenge category, and she’s asked to transform Swift’s seven-week Billboard Hot 100-topping 2014 hit into a Holiday Jazz standard.
Anyone who watched Gasteyer on SNL knows she has pipes — especially her skits alongside Will Ferrell as singing married couple The Culps — and she really sells this Postmodern Jukebox-style cover, throwing in some scatting for good measure.
Gasteyer is joined on That’s My Jam by three other Saturday Night Live alumni — one of whom she overlapped with, Rachel Dratch (1999-2006), and two who came after her, Fred Armisen (2002-13) and Melissa Villaseñor (2016-22). Gasteyer is clearly comfortable in the holiday music space, having released her own Christmas album, cheekily titled Sugar & Booze, back in 2019. Next up, she can be seen in season 2 of American Auto, which returns to NBC on Jan. 24.
Following the holiday special, That’s My Jam is coming back for a second season next year, premiering March 7. You can catch this Taylor Swift cover and more merry musical shenanigans when That’s My Jam Holiday Edition premieres Monday at 10 p.m. ET on NBC.
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SNL‘s December schedule will kick off with SZA as musical guest and Keke Palmer as host on Dec. 3.
“first december show!” the Saturday Night Live Instagram announced on Sunday (Nov. 13), following this weekend’s episode with Dave Chappelle and Black Star.
“Can’t believe this is happening lmao . I plan on acting a f—ing fool . See you soon New York,” SZA shared on her own account on Sunday.
Palmer wrote on Instagram, “I can’t wait!! The stage awaits @nbcsnl.”
SZA recently shared a teaser trailer for “PSA,” just two weeks after she released her new single “Shirt.” Last month she revealed that her long-awaited sophomore album is coming “any day” now.
See the SNL lineup announcement below.
Black Star made their Studio 8H debut on Nov. 12.
Introduced as “Brooklyn’s finest” by third-time Saturday Night Live host Dave Chappelle, the hip-hop duo of Talib Kweli and Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def) performed a pair of tracks from their long-awaited new album, No Fear or Time.
The 49-year-old comedian co-costs the Midnight Miracle podcast with Kweli and Bey.
For their musical guest spot, Black Star delivered two new tracks — “So Be It” and “The Main Thing Is to Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing” — from their new Madlib-produced album, No Fear of Time, which arrived earlier this year on Luminary. The nine-song set is the duo’s first album since 1998’s Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star.
Kweli and Bey were joined onstage by Madlib for the hard-hitting tracks. Ahead of Black Star’s SNL performance, Kweli spoke about the significance of appearing on the long-running NBC sketch comedy show.
“I can’t recall seeing a more hip-hop, a more independent group than Black Star to ever do SNL,” the artist told Consequence. “So I’m definitely excited to represent for the culture.”
Watch Black Star’s SNL performances below, and see the full episode on Hulu here. The streaming service is currently offering a 30-day free trial, which you can sign up for here. The show is also live streamed on Peacock.
Dave Chappelle brought back some of his most memorable Chappelle’s Show characters for a hilarious House of the Dragon spoof on Saturday Night Live.
The 49-year-old comedian, who served as SNL‘s host on Nov. 12, introduced the sketch by noting that he’s a big fan of the new Game of Thrones spin-off on HBO, and commenting on the fantasy drama’s inclusion of Black characters.
“I love that they’re including Black characters, but to be honest, the Black characters take me out of it a little bit with the blonde hair and the old timey accents — it’s a little jarring,” Chappelle said. “Where are these people from?”
He then gave SNL viewers a comical sneak-peek of season two of House of the Dragon by bringing several Chappelle’s Show regulars into the mix, including Silky Johnson, Tyrone Biggums and Rick James.
The four-and-a-half-minute skit also included a cameo by rapper and actor Ice-T, who played Silky Johnson’s cousin, “light-skinned Larry Targaryen.” In true player hater fashion, Ice-T’s character threw a jab at Silky, saying that his “h–s is so old, they t—–s give powdered milk,” to which Silky harshly commented on Larry’s flamboyant attire. “You look like E.T. when they dressed him up for Halloween.”
Later in the spoof, Chappelle’s popular Rick James made his triumphant return as another dragon-riding Targaryen family member, dressed in an open-chested silky red robe and sporting platinum blonde braids.
“I’m one of the baddest motherf—ers Westeros has ever seen,” James boasts at Dragonstone. “I heard you like to ride lizards; want to ride my, your freakin’ majesty?”
The spoof ends with Chappelle’s James flying off on a gigantic dragon, stomping his dirty shoes all over the saddle. “F— your dragon! F— your dragon,” he yells, referencing his popular catchphrase, as Silky and Tyrone soar alongside him.
Watch SNL’s “House of the Dragon” sketch below, and see the full episode on Hulu here. The streaming service is currently offering a 30-day free trial, which you can sign up for here. The show is also live streamed on Peacock.
Dave Chappelle’s opening monologue on Saturday Night Live tackled Kanye “Ye” West’s antisemitic comments, as well as Donald Trump and the midterm elections.
The comedian began by reading a statement he said he prepared. “I denounce antisemitism in all its forms. And I stand with my friends in the Jewish community,” he said, before adding, “And that, Kanye, is how you buy yourself some time.”
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Chappelle spent much of his set taking aim at West and how the rapper and fashion mogul thought he was untouchable until Adidas, among other business partners, dropped him after a series of antisemitic comments posted to social media. “Ironically, Addias was founded by Nazis and even they were offended,” he said.
Chappelle also discussed the controversy around Kyrie Irving, who recently was suspended from the Brooklyn Nets for at least five games after he shared a link to the documentary Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America — a film that contains antisemitic sentiments.
“He was slow to apologize,” the SNL host said of the NBA star. “The demands to get back in their good graces got longer and longer, and this is where I draw the line: I know the Jewish people have been through terrible things all over the world, but you can’t blame that on black Americans. You just can’t.”
SNL‘s decision to have Chappelle host spurred criticism after his controversial jokes about the transgender community in his Netflix special The Closer.
In teasers leading up to the episode, Chappelle and castmember Ego Nwodim seemingly addressed the controversy. After the comedian announced that he was hosting with musical guest Black Star, Nwodim asked him, confused, if they were doing the show live, Chappelle confirmed. “With you?” she continued, “In this news cycle?” But Chappelle didn’t address the backlash in his monologue.
When discussing the midterms, the comedian primarily focused on Herschel Walker and how some news organizations feel like the Trump era is over, but he claims that’s not the case. He went on to explain that living in Ohio, he gets a firsthand look at Trump’s fanbase, saying “he’s very loved. And the reason he’s loved is because people in Ohio have never seen somebody like him.”
Ahead of the opening monologue, the cold open featured a segment from Fox & Friends, starring Mikey Day, Heidi Gardner and Bowen Yang as Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt and Brian Kilmeade, with special appearances from Cecily Strong’s Kari Lake and James Austin Johnson’s Trump.
Chappelle hosted the comedy sketch series for the third time on Nov. 12. The last time the comedian hosted, it was the episode following the 2020 election in which Joe Biden defeated Trump, who was vying for a second term as president. Before that, he hosted the show after Trump won the 2016 presidential election.
Watch Chappelle’s SNL monologue below.
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
Steve Lacy brought his low-key charm to Saturday Night Live on Nov. 5.
The 24-year-old singer-guitarist performed two songs from his second solo album, Gemini Rights, during his musical guest debut on the NBC sketch comedy series.
Lacy, the breakout solo star who originally gained fame as a member of alt-soul band The Internet, opened with his slow-burning hits “Bad Habit” and closed with “Helmet.” Sporting his Batman-esque signature shades and wearing a shiny white button-down emblazoned with the letter “S,” the artist strummed away at his electric guitar with the help of a backing band on both tracks.
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Lacy is fresh off a major career high, earning his first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. About three months after the release of Gemini Rights in July, the album’s lead single “Bad Habit” ascended to the top of the Hot 100, where it remained for three weeks until being usurped by Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ “Unholy.”
The “Dark Red” singer’s SNL debut arrived one week after Jack Harlow took on double duty, serving as both the evening’s host and musical guest on Oct. 29. The next episode of SNL will feature returning host Dave Chappelle with musical guest Black Star on Nov. 12.
Watch Lacy’s SNL performances below, and see the full episode on Hulu here. The streaming service is currently offering a 30-day free trial, which you can sign up for here. The show is also live streamed on Peacock.