Saturday Night Live will end its 45th season earlier than planned due to the coronavirus pandemic, with one more episode airing this weekend. The show will air its third and hopefully final SNL At Home special on Saturday at 11:30 p.m. ET. Although this will only be the 18th episode of the season, the episode will act as the season finale, NBC said Thursday. As is the case with the first two SNL At Home episodes, a musical guest and host have not been announced.
The network released a brief teaser for the special episode, featuring outtakes from the previous SNL At Home episode. The previous episode aired back on April 25, with Brad Pitt making a special appearance as Dr. Anthony Fauci, the the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Pitt, who had never hosted an SNL episode before, also introduced that episode’s musical guest, Miley Cyrus. She performed a cover of Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” from her backyard.
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Season Finale this Saturday โผ๏ธ #SNLAtHome pic.twitter.com/CFTQzqBX8y
โ Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) May 7, 2020
The April 25 episode turned out much better than the first SNL At Home, which aired on April 11 and featured Tom Hanks and Coldplay’s Chris Martin as guests. Dozens of celebrities made surprise appearances, with former SNL star Adam Sandler effectively taking over Pete Davidson’s “Stuck In My House” music video. The sketch also featured an appearance from Rob Schneider, as well as Judd Apatow, Nathan Fillion, John Mulaney, Tan France and Annamarie Tendler as Davidson’s friends.
“What Up With That” also made a comeback, as it was the first time the game show sketch has been performed since 2012. Basketball legend Charles Barkley and DJ Khaled were the celebrity guests who barely got a word in while Kenan Thompson’s host kept interrupting them. Former SNL stars Fred Armisen and Jason Sudeikis appeared as their characters, the saxophone player and Track Suit Guy. Paul Rudd was featured in a sketch with Heidi Gardner, while Bad Bunny stopped by to sell “Big Ass Pots” in the “Big Papi Cooking Show” sketch with Thompson.
The previous two SNL At Home episodes also included full “Weekend Update” segments hosted by Colin Jost and Michael Che. They have been some of the top-rated episodes of the season, with the April 11 episode pulling in 6.7 million viewers, behind only Eddie Murphy’s December episode, reports The Hollywood Reporter. The April 25 episode drew 6.05 million viewers.