Saturday Night Live took the unusual step of announcing its first five hosts of Season 50 all at once last week, but it stopped just short of revealing its plans for episode No. 6—the post-election show.
With Election Day on Tuesday, November 5, the first chance SNL will have to sound off on the results will come on Saturday, November 9. What remains to be seen is whether the show will bring back comedian Dave Chappelle, who has hosted SNL’s post-election episodes for the previous two presidential races.
In 2016, Chappelle tackled Donald Trump’s upset over Hillary Clinton in his stand-up monologue and subsequent “Election Night” sketch. In 2020, Chappelle’s monologue covered Joe Biden’s victory and the past Trump presidency.
Chappelle returned to host SNL a third time in November 2022, following the midterm elections. The comedian covered that race in a controversial monologue that also touched on anti-Semitism, Kanye West, and the war in Ukraine.
For a show that revels in tradition, under normal circumstances a return visit from Chappelle would be as close to a sure thing as it gets. But with Chappelle facing increased criticism in recent years for his refusal to stop joking about trans people and other marginalized groups in his act, his SNL return is anything but assured.
Still, if we had to put money on it, we’d bet that he’ll be back.
For one, despite the backlash against him, Chappelle appears to still be in good graces with SNL and Lorne Michaels. For reasons that are still unclear, the comic showed up unannounced for goodnights at the end of last season’s January 27, 2024 episode hosted by Dakota Johnson. That in and of itself stirred up controversy at the time, but it tracks with recent comments Michaels has made regarding “cancel culture.”
Recalling the controversy surrounding Shane Gillis’ hiring and swift firing from SNL in 2019, Michaels told The Hollywood Reporter last week, “He got beat up for things that he’d done years earlier, and the overreaction to it was so stunning.”
“You’re judging everybody on every position they have on every issue as opposed to, ‘Are they any good at the thing they do?’” Michaels added. “I do think that period is winding down and, I believe, the people who do awful things will still be punished.”
Of course, a key difference remains between the backlash Gillis faced in 2019 and the one that Chappelle continues to weather: Gillis’ remarks were in the past, while Chappelle continues to stand by his. If SNL does book him for another post-election episode, it’s likely to spark a heated debate.
Perhaps that’s why SNL has left its sixth-episode host a question mark for now.
Saturday Night Live’s 50th season kicks off this weekend with host Jean Smart and musical guest Jelly Roll.
