Saturday Night Live‘s James Austin Johnson will make his first live-action TV guest appearance in nearly three years when he pops up on CBS’ Ghosts this spring.
As first reported by Variety, Johnson will fill the role of Joe, an Ulster County, N.Y. historical expert who helps Sam and Jay (played by series lead Utkarsh Ambudkar and Rose McIver) navigate the process of declaring Woodstone Manor a historical monument.
LateNighter has learned that Johnson will appear in Season 5’s two-part, back-to-back episodes finale, airing sometime in May.
Johnson sneaked off to Montreal to bank the role last month, during SNL‘s weeks-long Winter Olympics break.
Now in its fifth season, CBS’ Ghosts—a highly successful U.S. adaptation of the British sitcom by the same name—is averaging 6.2 million total viewers (with delayed playback), which makes it TV’s second-most watched comedy. It trails only CBS’ own Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage (6.9 mil), and just outpaces NBC’s SNL (which is averaging shy of 6 million).
Johnson is currently in his fifth season at SNL, where he’s best known for playing/parodying Donald Trump.
His previous TV acting roles include episodes of HBO’s Barry, Hulu’s Future Man, CBS’ All Rise and AMC’s Better Call Saul, plus loads of voice work on series such as Praise Petey, Tuca & Berie, and Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert-produced Fairview. He also had a small role in last year’s Oscar favorite/Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown.
CBS’ Ghosts airs Thursdays at 8:30 p.m. ET.
