Saturday Night Live announces host and musical guest for May 8
By Tiara Starks
While Saturday Night Live is currently on hiatus, the show just announced its upcoming episode lineup. The May 8 show will be hosted by tech mogul Elon Musk with musical guest, singer-songwriter Miley Cyrus.
The official announcement can be found on the official SNL Twitter and Instagram accounts. Cyrus also posted the announcement on her Twitter which the official SNL account retweeted.
In a season full of surprise host choices, Elon Musk is by far the most shocking choice. The announcement was met with strong backlash on social media, primarily directed at Lorne Michaels.
Elon Musk will make his Saturday Night Live debut as host
This will be Elon Musk’s first time hosting SNL. It will be Cyrus’ sixth appearance as a musical guest on the show, NBC said in a press release earlier today. Having a business mogul such as the Tesla founder be a host for the show is considered a rarity. The last time someone from the business industry hosted was in 1990 when New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner was the star of the show. Of course, Donald Trump infamously hosted in 2015 but that was as a presidential candidate.
The news of Musk’s upcoming appearance comes as his SpaceX travel venture launched its second operational flight of the Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station. Just yesterday, Musk spoke at a post-launch conference.
Miley Cyrus makes her return to Saturday Night Live
Miley Cyrus will appear as the musical guest for the sixth time. She has hosted previously on March 5, 2011 and appeared for the second time on October 5, 2013. She also made a cameo on October 26, 2013 where she appeared in the opening monologue and as one of the women in the “12 Years Not a Slave” sketch. She appeared again as a musical guest on November 4, 2017 performing “Bad Mood” and “I Would Die for You” and appeared in a few sketches.
It wouldn’t be surprising to see Cyrus appear in multiple sketches on May 8. It would certainly take some of the pressure off of Elon Musk, who has almost no performing experience outside of playing himself.
Watch Miley Cyrus’ performance of “Wrecking Ball” below:
What are your thoughts on the announcement of the May 8 episode host and musical guest? How do you think Elon Musk will perform in his SNL debut? Let us know in the comments below.