Saturday Night Live announced its next batch of hosts and musical guests this week.
Following a rerun this weekend, Mikey Madison will be the next host on March 29, fresh from her Best Actress Academy Award win for her acclaimed dramedy Anora.
But the iconic sketch comedy series also revealed a controversy-suffused country music star for the musical guest.
Morgan Wallen will be returning to the show for his sophomore appearance, following his 2020 debut.
The move comes after the 31-year-old performer temporarily stalled his career after he was caught on tape drunkenly shouting the N-word outside his home in February of 2021.
He was initially banned by several major corporations who own an empire of radio stations, but after just four months the owners had quietly allowed stations to begin playing Wallen’s music as they saw fit.
Saturday Night Live announced its next batch of hosts and musical guests this week
The March 29 show will have a surprising musical guest, country music superstar Morgan Wallen, whose public punishment for being caught shouting the N-word on video appears to have fully ended; seen making his debut on SNL in 2020
Anora star and Oscar winner Mikey Madison will be hosting the March 29 episode, marking her debut on SNL; seen March 2 in Beverly Hills
Wallen has his own controversial history with SNL.
In October 2020, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, he was uninvited from an episode scheduled for October after he was spotted partying while maskless and kissing multiple people.
Since he had broken the show’s Covid safety protocol at the time, he was replaced by Jack White, but Wallen was then invited back for a December 2020 episode.
In addition to performing, he was a guest in a sketch with Jason Bateman that poked fun at the previous controversy.
The following year’s N-word controversy led to public condemnation of Wallen, but fans of the singer responded to him using the offensive racial slur by listening to his music more than ever, leading to a 500 percent increase in streaming numbers.
When Good Morning America’s Michael Strahan asked Wallen if he thought that streaming surge could be a sign of racism lurking in the country music industry, he replied that he ‘hadn’t really thought about that,’ via the Daily Beast.
After the N-word incident, the singer reportedly expressed interest in having a sit-down with the Nashville NAACP, but TMZ later reported that he stopped taking the organization’s calls and resumed touring.
Last year, Wallen ran into trouble with the law when he was arrested and charged with three felony counts of reckless endangerment and one misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct for allegedly throwing a chair off the roof of a six-story bar in Nashville in April 2024.
In October 2020, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, he was uninvited from an episode scheduled for October after he was spotted partying while maskless and kissing multiple people; seen in 2023 in Nashville, Tennessee
But he was invited back for a December 2020 episode, in which he poked fun at the incident in a sketch with Jason Bateman
In 2021, he was caught on video shouting the N-word and was briefly banned from radio stations. Last year, he pleaded guilty to throwing a chair from a bar rooftop and was sentenced to seven days at a DUI education center and two years probation; seen in September in NYC
For SNL’s April 5 episode, Minecraft star Jack Black will be handling hosting duties
Elton John and Brandi Carlile will be the dual musical guests; seen March 2 in Hollywood
Then, on April 12, Jon Hamm will make his fourth turn as SNL host, though he’s a friend of the show who has made numerous cameos over the years; seen with wife Anna Osceola on March 2 in Beverly Hills
Lizzo will also be making her fourth musical guest appearance on the show, though she held double duty as host and musical guest in 2022; pictured March 14 in NYC
The chair-throwing incident had been witnessed by two police officers who were standing outside of the bar when the chair came crashing down from the skies, though, luckily, no one was injured.
Wallen, who had been arrested for public intoxication back in 2020, eventually pleaded guilty to two counts of reckless endangerment that had been reduced to misdemeanors, while the remaining charges were dismissed.
A judged sentence him to one week of incarceration, with his seven days served at a DUI education center.
He was also sentenced to two years of supervised probation, and he was ᴀssessed a $350 fine and ordered to pay court fees.
For SNL’s April 5 episode, Minecraft star Jack Black will be handling hosting duties, while Elton John and Brandi Carlile will be the dual musical guests.
Then, on April 12, Jon Hamm will make his fourth turn as SNL host, though he’s a friend of the show who has made numerous cameos over the years.
Lizzo will also be making her fourth musical guest appearance on the show, though she held double duty as host and musical guest in 2022.
