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Shane Gillis – who had been fired over racist and homophobic comments in 2019 – will host SNL on 24 February
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Saturday Night Live returns to screens on 24 February with comedian Shane Gillis with his first time hosting the show.
Gillis was initially hired to join the show’s cast back in 2019 but was fired within a matter of days after clips resurfaced of the comedian making racial slurs and homophobic comments.
The comedian will be joined alongside 21 Savage as the show‘s musical guest.
SNL was hosted last week by The Bear actor Ayo Edebiri, who appeared to get emotional on stage for her opening monologue, telling the audience how much the show has meant to her and declaring, “This really is a dream come true.”
Last week’s episode saw performances by Jennifer Lopez of her new singles “This Is Me… Now” and “Can’t Get Enough”, with the latter featuring appearances by rappers Latto and REDMAN.
It has not yet been revealed who else will be hosting SNL in upcoming episodes.
Here is everything you need to know about the next episode of SNL:
Who’s hosting this week?
Despite being fired from the show as a cast member more than four years ago, comedian Shane Gillis returns to the show as the host for the 24 February episode.
Gillis was hired alongside current cast members Bowen Yang and Chloe Fineman to appear in season 45.
Yet a week later, he was dropped from the show after clips of him using racial slurs and homophobic remarks started to circulate on social media.
This included clips from a podcast he hosted along with comedian Matt McCusker.
After he was fired, Gillis responded to the incident, saying: “I’m a comedian who was funny enough to get SNL. That can’t get taken away.”
“Of course, I wanted an opportunity to prove myself, but I understand it would be too much of a distraction,” he added.
“I respect the decision they made. I’m honestly grateful for the opportunity.”
He also said in an earlier post, the day after the casting was announced, that he was “happy to apologise to anyone who’s actually offended by anything I’ve said.”
In a statement from an SNL spokesperson at the time, they said, “We want SNL to have a variety of voices and points of view within the show, and we hired Shane on the strength of his talent as a comedian and his impressive audition for SNL.
Shane Gillis will host the next episode of SNL
“We were not aware of his prior remarks that have surfaced over the past few days,” they added.
“The language he used is offensive, hurtful and unacceptable. We are sorry that we did not see these clips earlier, and that our vetting process was not up to our standard.”
Aside from Gillis’ rocky past with SNL, the comedian has been a repeat guest on the controversial The Joe Rogan Experience podcast and has also appeared on Barstool Sports’ KFC Radio, and Sirius XM’s The Bonfire, NBC said.
He also turned up in former SNL cast member and this season’s first host, Pete Davidson’s TV series Bupkis, playing a character called “Gilly”.
He also recently released a comedy special with Netflix in September 2023 named Shane Gillis: Beautiful Dogs.
Who’s performing this week?
Fresh off performing with Burna Boy and Brandy and the 2024 Grammy Awards, rapper 21 Savage will appear as the musical guest on 24 February.
His most recent album, american dream was released last month and sat comfortably at the top of the Billboard 100 charts for two weeks until it was bumped by Morgan Wallen’s One Thing At A Time.
Rapper 21 Savage released a single titled ‘ASMR’ in 2018
Like last week’s musical guest Jennifer Lopez, for a split second, it seemed as though 21 Savage was dropping a film named american dream: the 21 savage story alongside his newest album after he released a trailer that starred Mr & Mrs Smith actor Donald Glover and Stranger Things star Caleb McLaughlin.
However, in a recent interview on Club Shay Shay, the rapper said the trailer was just “a parody”, but when asked if it could be good enough to be adapted for the big screen, he said, “I feel like it could be... One day.”
What time does SNL air?
SNL airs at 11.30pm ET (10.30pm CT, 9.30pm MT and 8.30pm PT) on Saturday nights.
How can I watch?
In the US, the live show will air on NBC each Saturday.
The show can be caught up on NBC’s streaming service Peacock the next day.
The sketch show is available in the UK on Sky, on the Sky Comedy channel at 9pm on Sunday evenings.
Highlights and sketches from the show will appear on the SNL YouTube Channel.
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Shane Gillis will host the next episode of SNL
Getty Images for Bob Woodruff Fo
Rapper 21 Savage released a single titled ‘ASMR’ in 2018
Neilson Barnard/Getty Images
The upcoming SNL host will be Shane Gillis, who was fired from the show in 2019
Getty Images for Bob Woodruff Foundation
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