Posted in: NBC, Peacock, TV | Tagged: saturday night live, snl

SNL 50 Pregame: Grande's 2016 Cut for Time Sketches; Nicks/"Nightbird"

SNL 50 Pregame: Ariana Grande's two 2016 Cut for Time sketches and Stevie Nicks on how her sister-in-law helped save her 1983 performance.

We knew that this season of NBC's Saturday Night Live was going to be a special one – and how could it not be? How many live, late-night sketch comedy and music series can you think of that have been around for 50 insanely impactful seasons? With Jason Reitman's feature film Saturday Night telling the tale of SNL's final 90 minutes before changing the landscape of television forever, this past Friday brought us the actual anniversary of the George Carlin-hosted first show in 1975. SNL heads into tonight's Ariana Grande (Wicked)-hosted, Stevie Nicks-performing show coming off of two strong outings in a row.

For this week's SNL 50 Pregame, we're looking back at Grande's and Nicks' previous SNL efforts. For Grande, this is her second time hosting, having done double duty as host and musical guest during Season 41 (March 12, 2016) – and a musical guest during Season 40 (September 27, 2014: host Chris Pratt) and Season 49 (March 9, 2024: host Josh Brolin). Meanwhile, this will be Nicks's first return since her performance during Season 9 (December 10, 1983: host Flip Wilson) – where she performed "Stand Back" and "Nightbird."

SNL 50: Looking Back at Ariana Grande & Stevie Nicks

First up, we have a look back at a selection of sketches from Grande's previous hosting efforts – including "The Is Not a Feminist Song," "Mermaids," and "Kids' Choice Awards":

But not every sketch in that show made it from final rehearsal to air. In "March Madness" – the first of two Cut for Time sketches – JoJo (Kyle Mooney) and BoBo (Beck Bennett) try to figure out what the deal is with a coworker's (Grande) March Madness party. Following that, "Cinema Channel" gives Grande a chance to tackle Judy Garland in a behind-the-scenes look at how Garland had creative control over her 1961 film, Up We Go in Our Fantastic Rocket:

"That was about 21/2 years into my solo career, so it was nerve-wracking because it was not Fleetwood Mac; it was my solo career, so it was very scary to go on the show when you've been in a huge band, and now you're going on Saturday Night Live as a solo artist," Nicks shared about her initial appearance on SNL as a solo performer, discussing the experience with PEOPLE and revealing how a family member helped save Nicks's performance from being derailed before it could ever happen.

"You know, we practiced and practiced, and everything went well. At the time, I had my friend who wrote 'Stand Back,' and she was gonna do the second song, which was called 'Nightbird' — and she freaked out and had terrible stage fright, so she couldn't do it," Nicks shared. "So one of my singers, who ended up being my sister-in-law Lori [Perry], she said, 'I'll do it,' and she's crazy, but she said, 'I'll do it.' This is literally right before we went on, and so we went on and we did it, and it came out perfect!"

Even with the unexpected last-minute drama, Nicks looks back on the opportunity with fondness and appreciation. "It was one of those shows that, even with that horrible wrench that was thrown in the middle of it, it came off beautifully. I've never been so proud of anything as I was of that night. It was a magical show, and I was thrilled, and it definitely kicked my solo career up," she shared.

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