Saturday Night Live returns from its winter break with two first-time hosts. Aubrey Plaza will host with musical guest Sam Smith on January 21st while Michael B. Jordan will take hosting duties alongside musical guest Lil Baby January 28th.
Plaza ended 2022 with a bang, luxuriating in Italy for White Lotus and playing a criminal named Emily in Emily the Criminal. Meanwhile, Jordan’s Creed III will hit theaters on March 3rd, so it’s a slam dunk that there will be at least one Rocky sketch on the program. The two couldn’t be more different stylistically — she’s so deadpan that she has fans wanting her to stand on their faces, and Jordan is a classic movie star with a trillion-dollar smile — so it’ll be a fun couple of weeks to see the show shake things up.
In a way, it’s strange that these two haven’t hosted SNL yet. Plaza has an Upright Citizens Brigade background and was even an NBC page. As she shifted from Parks and Rec to movies and weird anti-superhero roles, she would have an been an ideal pick as host. The same goes for Jordan for different reasons. He’s wildly versatile, dangerously charming, and he’s been a bona fide star for almost a decade.
All that to say: these are really fun picks. An excellent way to kickstart the second half of the comedy show’s 48th season.
