Comedian Shane Gillis' opening monologue will take place next weekend when he returns to host "Saturday Night Live" nearly five years since being hired and fired from the show.
Gillis' firing in 2019 came four days after "SNL" announced him as a featured cast member. News of the hiring was sullied after a video from 2018 resurfaced and showed the comedian using anti-Asian slurs and mocking Chinese people.
Now Gillis will host "SNL" Feb. 24 at NBC Studios located in the famed Rockefeller Center, the show announced Feb. 3 on X. The special musical guest for the show is scheduled to be 21 Savage.
Here's everything you need to know about Gillis' return to "SNL"
Gillis' "SNL" appearance is slated for Feb. 24 at 11:30 p.m. EST.
Viewers can watch "SNL" live on NBC. Peacock subscribers can watch new "SNL" episodes the day after the show airs, but all past episodes are available to stream on the service now.
Current "SNL" cast members Bowen Yang and Chloe Fineman were added as feature players alongside Gillis for season 45 of the show. Yang became the first cast member of East Asian descent.
Gillis will not only see Yang and Fineman, but other cast members will join them throughout the show. The current cast includes comedians Michael Che, Mikey Day, Andrew Dismukes, Heidi Gardner, Marcello Hernández, Punkie Johnson, James Austin Johnson, Colin Jost, Molly Kearney, Michael Longfellow, Ego Nwodim, Sarah Sherman, Kenan Thompson, Chloe Troast, Devon Walker, Fineman and Yang.
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A video resurfaced of Gillis from an an episode of his "Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast." In the clip, Gillis made derogatory anti-Asian remarks while speaking to comedian co-host Matt McCusker.
Gillis is heard in the clip accusing Chinese food and eateries of being "dishonest."
"The translation between you and the waiter is such a (expletive) hassle, I’m pointing at it," Gillis said in the video he's since deleted from his YouTube Channel.
The comedian went on to say in the clip that "an Asian trying to learn English bothers me."
"SNL" creator Lorne Michaels said he was unaware of Gillis' past remarks. The show parted ways with Gillis and called the comedian's language "offensive, hurtful and unacceptable."
Gillis apologized to anyone offended by the comments he made in the resurfaced video and said comedians who push boundaries "sometimes miss."
"If you go through my 10 years of comedy, most of it bad, you’re going to find a lot of bad misses … My intention is never to hurt anyone but I am trying to be the best comedian I can be and sometimes that requires risks," Gillis said in an apology statement he posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
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