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SNL Returns Feb. 24th; Controversial Ex-SNL Cast Member Set to Host

Saturday Night Live returns Feb. 24th with 21 Savage & host Shane Gillis, who was ousted from SNL in 2019 over controversial remarks.

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NBC's Saturday Night Live might be making news tonight for all of the wrong reasons. We learned that SNL won't be returning until February 24th – and when it does, musical guest 21 Savage will be joined by stand-up comedian Shane Gillis – a name that SNL fans might remember from a few years back. Back in September 2019, the long-running sketch comedy/music series parted ways with the newly-announced cast member only days after recordings of racist, sexist, and homophobic comments surfaced – part of a YouTube channel called Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast.

"After talking with Shane Gillis, we have decided that he will not be joining SNL. We want SNL to have a variety of voices and points of view within the show, and we hired Shane on the strength of his talent as a comedian and his impressive audition for SNL," shared a spokesperson for SNL creator Lorne Michaels regarding the decision at the time. "We were not aware of his prior remarks that have surfaced over the past few days The language he used is offensive, hurtful, and unacceptable. We are sorry that we did not see these clips earlier and that our vetting process was not up to our standard."

In one of the segments from a more extensive September 2018 YouTube post (which was removed), Gillis says to co-host & comedian Matt McCusker, "Chinatown's f***ing nuts. Let the f***ing ch**ks live there." Later in that same video post, Gillis has this to say about his experiences at Chinese restaurants: "The translation between you and the waiter is such a f—ing hassle, I'm pointing at it." Gillis then appears to attempt to differentiate their discussion by calling it "nice racism, good racism." Gillis would respond to the controversy by offering to apologize to anyone "who's actually offended by anything" and stating that to be "the best comedian" he can be, he must be someone who "pushes boundaries" and "takes risks."

SNL
Image: NBC

NBC's Saturday Night Live Season 49 company includes Michael Che, Mikey Day, Andrew Dismukes, Chloe Fineman, Heidi Gardner, Marcello Hernandez, James Austin Johnson, Punkie Johnson, Colin Jost, Molly Kearney, Michael Longfellow, Ego Nwodim, Sarah Sherman, Kenan Thompson, Chloe Troast, Devon Walker, and Bowen Yang. SNL is executive-produced by Lorne Michaels, with Liz Patrick directing and SNL alum Darrell Hammond announcing. Broadcasting from Studio 8H in Rockefeller Center, the long-running late-night sketch comedy/music series is produced by SNL Studios in association with Universal Television and Broadway Video.

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Ray FlookAbout Ray Flook

Serving as Television Editor since 2018, Ray began five years earlier as a contributing writer/photographer before being brought onto the core BC team in 2017.
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