‘SNL’ Stars Colin Jost and Michael Che to Host Peacock’s First Live Comedy Special

Colin Jost and Michael Che are going from the Weekend Update desk to The Bell House in Brooklyn for a new comedy special. Deadline reports that the Saturday Night Live will be hosting Peacock’s first-ever live comedy special titled New York After Dark. With Universal Television Alternate Studio as the special’s studio, it’s set to premiere on the streamer on Thursday, Sept. 12 at 9 p.m. ET.

The hour-long special will be taped live in front of an in-person audience at The Bell House and will feature a night of “drop-ins only” from New York City comics. It will range from a variety of newcomers and possibly even some familiar faces. Musical ensemble 1500 or Nothin’ has been tapped as the house band. New York After Dark comes from Jost’s No Notes Productions and Che’s 7F Project and will be directed by Michael Mancini. Jost, Jeff Grosvenor, and Emily Hason will executive produce for No Notes, with Che and Rachael Edwards for 7F Project and Rikki Hughes of Magic Lemonade. Hughes also serves as showrunner.

Not only will New York After Dark mark Peacock’s first live comedy special, it will also be Jost’s first comedy special. The SNL writer has never released a special, unlike Che. He released Michael Che Matters in 2016 and Michael Che: Shame the Devil in 2021 for Netflix and had a set for Comedy Central’s The Half Hour. The special also comes just a couple of weeks before they will both be returning to for the variety sketch series’ 50th season, once again holding down Weekend Update, as they’ve been doing for the past 10 years.

It’s unknown if there will be more live specials on Peacock following New York After Dark, but it’s possible the streamer wants to see how this one does, both with views and the technical aspects, before agreeing to anything else. With live TV already available on Peacock, it’s not too out of the ordinary, but it could be just another path that the streamer can take to expand its audience. It all begins on Thursday, Sept. 12 at 9 p.m. ET only on Peacock.