Saturday Night Livehas announced five hosts for its upcoming 45th season, and the big news is thatEddie Murphywill be coming back to hostSNL’s holiday episode on Dec. 21.
Season 45 will premiere on Sept. 28 withZombieland: Double TapstarWoody Harrelsonhosting and 17-year-oldBillie Eilishserving as musical guest. The following week will seeFleabagsensationPhoebe Waller-Bridgehost with musical guestTaylor Swift, and on Oct. 12,Stranger ThingsstarDavid Harbourwill host with musical guestCamila Cabello.
Later on in the season,Kristen Stewartwill host the show on Nov. 2, timed to the release of Sony’sCharlie’s Angelsreboot. No musical guests were announced for Stewart’s episode or Murphy’s episode, though executive producerLorne Michaelshas plenty of time to find hot acts, and I imagine there will be no shortage of volunteers for Murphy’s big return to Studio 8H. It will be Murphy’s first time hosting since 1984, the year thatBeverly Hills Copmade him a household name. Murphy next stars in the Netflix movieDolemite Is My Name, which will debut at the Toronto International Film Festival next month. Murphy hasn’t starred in a film in three years, though he did make time to shoot an episode ofComedians in Cars Getting CoffeewithJerry Seinfeld, and he’s about to begin shootingComing 2 America, in which he reprises his role as Prince Akeem.
While Eilish and Cabello have never appeared onSNLbefore, Swift will be making her third appearance as the show’s musical guest, and theCatsstar will perform songs off her new albumLover. The pairing of Swift with Waller-Bridge, who is one of the hottest names in all of entertainment right now betweenFleabag,Killing Eveand the James Bond movieNo Time to Die, should ensure thatSNL’s ratings will climb following the season premiere.
