‘A Bad Flu’ Kept Dana Carvey Away From SNL’s 50th

For as much chatter as Sunday night’s star-packed SNL50: The Anniversary Special has generated since its broadcast, a disproportionate amount seems to have circled around the the famous alums who were not in attendance at the show.

We’re now learning why one of the more conspicuous no-shows wasn’t there.

Mike Schneider at Variety reports that “a bad flu” prevented Dana Carvey from participating in the show. Carvey had been a frequent presence on the show this season, playing the show’s Joe Biden through the election, and making additional appearances as The Church Lady, Elon Musk, and Al Pacino.

Carvey is expected to address his absence tomorrow when he catches up with David Spade in a new episode of their Fly on the Wall Podcast. (Spade was at the special, appearing in the John Mulaney-fronted “New York Musical” sketch.)

As we’ve reported, Bill Hader and Dan Aykroyd were also no-shows at the event. Aykroyd said as early as last August that he’d prefer to watch the show from home, while reps for Hader have said that he had a longstanding scheduling conflict.

Though the three former cast members were clearly missed, there were hundreds of others in attendance—so many, in fact, that some were apparently seated in a different studio entirely. The overflow crowd of former cast members, writers and others associated with the show was seated in Studio 8G (home to Late Night with Seth Meyers), where sources tell us drinks were served as attendees watched the proceedings taking place in the studio next door on monitors.