‘SNL’ Not New Tonight, NBC Olympics Coverage Airing Instead

If you were hoping for Saturday Night Live this week, you’ll have to keep waiting. The variety show is on a brief hiatus while NBC is airing constant coverage of the Winter Olympics in Beijing. The international sporting event is a two-week affair and will come to a close on Sunday, Feb. 20. SNL Is set to return on Feb. 26.

Comedian John Mulaney is set to host with LCD Soundsystem as the musical guest. Mulaney was a writer on SNL from  2008 to 2012, winning an Emmy and co-creating the wildly popular Bill Hader character Stefon. This time hosting will also be significant for Mulaney, who will join the famed Five-Timers Club. The club is a group of celebrities who have hosted SNL at least five times, including Steve Martin, Alec Baldwin, Scarlett Johansson, Justin Timberlake, Tina Fey, Tom Hanks, Ben Affleck, and others. 

The most recent inductee was Paul Rudd, who hosted for the fifth time on Dec. 21, 2021. However, only Tom Hanks and Tina Fey were there to induct him. The show was paired down at the last moment due to the rise of the Omicron coronavirus variant in New York City, so only Kenan Thompson and Michael Che were at the studio. Only a handful of pre-taped new sketches were featured, alongside a mix of classic Christmas sketches.

This will also be Mulaney’s first major television appearance since he and his new girlfriend, actress Olivia Munn, welcomed their son Malcolm. Mulaney also completed a rehab stint in December 2020, briefly served as a writer for his friend Seth Meyers’ Late Night, and split from his wife Anna Marie Tendler in May 2021.

As for LCD Soundsystem, the group recently released LCD Soundsystem Holiday Special on Amazon Prime Video. Their previous appearance on SNL was in 2017 came as they released their fourth album, American Dream. The group’s current members are James Murphy, Nancy Whang, Pat Mahoney, Tyler Page, Al Doyle, and Korey Richey.

SNL airs on NBC Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET. Past episodes are available to stream on Peacock and Hulu.