UPDATED Feb. 17, 2025, 3:41 p.m.
NEW YORK — More than 150 “Saturday Night Live” cast members, writers and guest hosts — including Chevy Chase, Eddie Murphy and Kristen Wiig — will take part in a star-studded March 27 special commemorating the show’s 50th anniversary on NBC.
The network announced the extensive guest lineup and date as the nation’s top-rated late-night comedy show, known as “SNL” or simply “S.N.L.,” prepares to reach a milestone few broadcast programs ever do.
The special, with the working title “SNL 50,” begins ticking off the names in its press release: Dan Aykroyd, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Steve Martin, Bill Murray, Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Martin Short, Tracy Morgan, Andy Samberg, Maya Rudolph, Chris Rock and Bill Hader. The actors and comedians will review highlights from the show’s five decades and participate in new skits, according to NBC.
The highly anticipated guest star list omits some names from the recent past, including Amy Schumer, Dave Chappelle and Aziz Ansari. It is not uncommon for some performers to be omitted from special anniversaries. In 2015, for instance, Tina Fey and Jeffrey Gurian — who like Ms. Schumer, Mr. Chappelle and Mr. Ansari joined “Weekend Update” as guest anchors — returned to celebrate “S.N.L.”‘s 40th but Jimmy Fallon and Rachel Dratch did not. Mr. Fallon and Ms. Dratch got to carry the torch for “S.N.L.” on a primetime special celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2000.
This year the studio audience and some segments will be taped ahead of time, with a live format for the skits and musical performances, the network said. Colin Jost and Michael Che, who host “Weekend Update,” will serve as the evening’s anchors.
A blend of old and new cast members are set to participate, with some current performers taping segments ahead of time, including Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, Kenan Thompson, Cecily Strong and Pete Davidson, according to Bill Carter of The New York Times.
Among the long list of performers to appear during the final dress rehearsal, getting to play for quieter skits, interviews, tributes and obits, with the cameras rolling: Darrell Hammond, Will Ferrell, Taylor Schilling, Chris Rock, Jon Lovitz, Paul Shaffer, Molly Shannon, Dana Carvey, Tim Meadows, Julia Sweeney, Robert Downey Jr., Norm Macdonald, Gilbert Gottfried, Rachel Dratch and Sarah Silverman.
Two cast members are missing from that list: Eddie Murphy and Chevy Chase. NBC did not provide any additional information on either one.
Mr. Chase did not respond to a request for comment. Mr. Murphy, who hosts the Oscars on March 4, is scheduled to appear before that television broadcast, which could create complications for his “SNL” spot.
On Feb. 15, 1975, “NBC’s Saturday Night,” as it was called at the time, made its debut — 13 seconds late because although live then, the bigisky format made the show subject to delays. The show was a 90-minute late-night comedy edition trying to follow that era’s standards in releasing beer commercials late in the program with hoped-for boozed viewers, and the experiment aimed to offer an outlet for smart young comics eager for alternative showcase opportunities.
Actually, it ran only 60 minutes, because the show was proved so predictably amusing that the beer machines stayed off. Before the end, two famous cast members debuted: Jane Curtin and John Belushi, and the audience swelled to more than 50 million viewers.
Forty-nine other seasons have unfolded since, and 22 seasons have featured its longest-running cast member, Alec Baldwin. Faced with escalating competition, yet holding on to its ratings lead, the new “S.N.L.” voice of television’s Trumpian obsessions will have many choices as to which giant figures of the past to invite to the party.
In addition to editing this article, Dave Itzkoff helped develop its strategy. Azi Paybarah, Jonathan Landman and Kate Becker contributed reporting.
Leave a Reply