Posted in: NBC, Preview, Trailer, TV | Tagged: katy perry, nbc, saturday night live, snl, willem dafoe

Saturday Night Live: Willem Dafoe on Never Having Hosted SNL Before

After yesterday's on-stage promos with this weekend's host Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man: No Way Home), musical guest Katy Perry, and SNL cast member Chris Redd (who killed it as ESPN First Take's Stephen A. Smith in last weekend's "Cut for Time" sketch), we've reached that pre-show limbo time where pretty much anything SNL-related can happen. A perfect example? It's mind-blowing to us that someone with his career has never taken the main stage at Studio 8H to host before. Sure, he appeared in Adam McKay's 2000 short film "The Procedure" that aired on the show and he made a guest appearance during last weekend's Will Forte-hosted effort, but other than that? He's a first-timer, and that's something he offered some thought on during a recent edition of Variety's Awards Circuit podcast. "I think there was never the right combination of things," the actor explained when asked why the opportunity never arose before. "Because it's nice to pair it to a movie or something. And yes, I've had some successful movies in my career but they aren't always the ones that you can hang a 'Saturday Night Live' appearance on."

Now here's a look back at the promos released on Thursday night, with Defoe kicking things off by showing he's having the best time ever whether what he's doing is a sketch or a promo- and neither Redd nor Perry look willing to tell him otherwise. Following that, Dafoe has every reason in the world to believe that Redd and Perry might just have some "noir" history together. And finally, Dafoe wants Redd and Perry that he's had a premonition… about the best night of his entire life!

Now here's a look at Dafoe clearly hard at work during this week's read-thru, followed by a look back at Dafoe and Perry's official video welcoming them to Studio 8H from yesterday, with NBC's Saturday Night Live returning this weekend:

During a tour behind-the-scenes of SNL's show night with CBS Mornings host Gayle King for his Kennedy Center honor before the end of the year, Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels revealed that he had been thinking of retiring and thought it was a "really good time to leave." But first and foremost, his commitment is to see the show make it to that milestone. "I think I'm committed to doing this show until its 50th anniversary, which is in three years. I'd like to see that through, and I have a feeling that'd be a really good time to leave," Michaels explained. "I won't want the show ever to be bad. I care too deeply about it. It's been my life's work. So I'm going to do everything I can to see it carry on and carry on well," he continued. And while Michaels was loathed to discuss details on something that wouldn't happen for three more years, he did admit when it comes to who would take on the role next that they had "a sense of where we're headed with that."

NBC's Saturday Night Live Season 47 cast includes Aidy Bryant, Michael Che, Pete Davidson, Mikey Day, Chloe Fineman, Heidi Gardner, Colin Jost, Kate McKinnon, Alex Moffat, Kyle Mooney, Ego Nwodim, Chris Redd, Cecily Strong, Kenan Thompson, Melissa Villaseñor, and Bowen Yang; feature players include the returning Andrew Dismukes and Punkie Johnson, as well as new players Aristotle Athari (Future Man, All Rise), James Austin Johnson (Silicon Valley), and Sarah Sherman (The Eric Andre Show).

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