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“Saturday Night Live,” which is celebrating its 50th season this year, has had hundreds of hosts. There are the famous actors, the musicians and the comedians, of course. And then there are the professional athletes who are used to performing on fields, tracks and courts, not on a stage at 30 Rockefeller Plaza.
Dwayne Johnson, the wrestler turned movie star known as the Rock, has hosted five times, the most of any athlete. Tom Brady, the seven-time Super Bowl champion, stiffly sang and danced in a sport coat and jeans in 2005. Chris Evert, the winner of 18 Grand Slam tennis titles, hosted shortly after retiring in 1989, becoming the first of three female athletes to do so. (Nancy Kerrigan and Ronda Rousey are the others.)
There is no guarantee an athlete’s monologue will be successful or the sketches funny. But this participation trophy is an exclusive one — only about three dozen have received an invite to flex their coordination and teamwork.
A few years ago, Heidi Gardner, an “S.N.L.” cast member and Kansas City Chiefs fan, started a campaign to convince the show’s leadership that the star tight end Travis Kelce had the charisma to succeed as a host. Lorne Michaels eventually agreed, she said, with a catch: The Chiefs had to win the Super Bowl again.
One month after they did in 2023, Kelce was making fun of his own monosyllabic motivational speeches and overlooked reality dating show.
Lindsay Shookus, who worked on “S.N.L.” for more than two decades, said the show often tries to book athletes after high-profile events, such as the Super Bowl or the Olympics, when they are top of mind for a general audience.
J.J. Watt, who was one of the National Football League’s most feared and most recognizable players — his left arm wrapped in a robotic-like brace — during his 12-season career, was a star of the show. But their schedules never quite aligned.
He watched episodes helmed by other athletes, including the 2007 episode with quarterback Peyton Manning, who was part of a well-received sketch about the United Way charity in which he chucked footballs — and verbal abuse — at children.
Gardner said that most hosts kept a binder of sketch scripts in their dressing rooms, but that Watt would carry his around during rehearsals.
Jeff Gordon, a face of NASCAR for two decades, ignored the first invitation he received to host “S.N.L.” He was a casual fan of the show growing up, and was not initially interested in the opportunity when it arrived in 2001.
Deion Sanders, a two-sport star — the only athlete to play in both a Super Bowl and a World Series — when he hosted “S.N.L.” But even he reached newfound fame in the weeks between his first Super Bowl win and his hosting gig.
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