December 16, 2023 Season 49 episode
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| Episode | 956 |
| Season Episode | 8 |
| Host | Kate McKinnon |
| Musical Guest(s) | Billie Eilish & Finneas O'Connell |
| Song(s) performed by Musical Guest(s) |
"What Was I Made For?" "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" |
| Previous Episode December 9, 2023 |
Next Episode January 20, 2024 |
The 956th episode and 8th episode of Saturday Night Live's 49th season premiered on December 16, 2023, hosted by former longtime cast member Kate McKinnon, voiced the lead character Squeeks the Mouse in the PBS Kids' educational animated children's television series Nature Cat, and Miss Fiona Felicity Frizzle in the Netflix's animated series The Magic School Bus Rides Again, the continuation of the original series The Magic School Bus and the star of Peacock's miniseries Joe vs. Carole, and she also the star of the the hit films Balls Out, Masterminds, Ghostbusters, Office Christmas Party, Rough Night, The Spy Who Dumped Me, Family, Yesterday, Bombshell, The Bubble, Barbie, and In the Blink of an Eye and the animated films The Angry Birds Movie, Disney-Pixar's animated film Finding Dory, the sequel to Finding Nemo, Ferdinand, and DC League of Super Pets, with musical guest Billie Eilish, an singer-songwriter alongside her brother Finneas O'Connell.
Billie Eilish previously made her 2nd musical guest appearances on SNL on the following dates: On September 28, 2019, which is the Season 45 premiere, hosted by actor Woody Harrelson; which coincidentally, was the first episode for current cast members Chloe Fineman and Bowen Yang and on December 11, 2021, the eighth and Holidays-themed episode of SNL's 47th season, when she hosted for the first time and also served as the episode's musical guest.
This was Kate McKinnon's first-time as host, making her the 39th longtime former SNL cast member to returned as host this season, Billie Eilish's 3rd musical guest appearance was made on SNL and Greta Gerwig's first SNL appearance since her cameo in the 2017 sketch The Race.
The goodnights speech for Kate McKinnon is "Thanks to Billie Eilish, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Thank You to the Cast and Crew, Thank You, Whoo". (Cheers and Applause)
Cast[]
Repertory Players[]
- Michael Che
- Mikey Day
- Andrew Dismukes
- Chloe Fineman
- Heidi Gardner
- James Austin Johnson
- Punkie Johnson
- Colin Jost
- Ego Nwodim
- Sarah Sherman
- Kenan Thompson
- Bowen Yang
Featured Players[]
- Cameos by another longtime former cast members Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig; as well as Greta Gerwig and former longtime writer Paula Pell.
Musical appearance by Billie's brother Finneas O'Connell
Sketches and Musical Performances[]
Cold Open Sketch Pre-recorded Weekend Update Music Performance Other
| Title | Image | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| 95th Annual Christmas Awards Cold Opening | Two hosts (Heidi Gardner, Bowen Yang) honor family and friends at the 95th Christmas Awards. Also features Mikey Day as Dad, Andrew Dismukes as Cousin Nathan, Chloe Fineman as Gam Gam, Marcello Hernández as Mario Lopez, James Austin Johnson as Granddad, Punkie Johnson as Aunt Shirley, Molly Kearney as Sister-in-Law Tanya, Michael Longfellow as Uncle Matt, Ego Nwodim as Cousin Layla, Sarah Sherman as Mike's girlfriend, Kenan Thompson as Charlie Bell, Chloe Troast as Carly, Devon Walker as Mike and Bowen Yang as John Parker-Lee. | |
| Opening Montage | The final "Behind the Scenes" video of 2023 separates from the cold opening to monologue to close out the year 2023. | |
| Monologue by Kate McKinnon | Longtime former cast-member Kate McKinnon makes her triumphant returned to Saturday Night Live to host for the first time, and shares what she's been up to since leaving the show and performs a special Christmas song. Cameos by another longtime former cast members Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph. | |
| North Pole: News Report | A news correspondent (Mikey Day) interviews an elf (Kate McKinnon) after a killer whale attack in North Pole. With Chloe Fineman as Poppy Tinselbottom and Bowen Yang as the secretary. | |
| Pongo | A family (Kate McKinnon, Mikey Day, Sarah Sherman, Chloe Fineman, and Andrew Dismukes) opens a secret gift for Christmas. | |
| ABBA Christmas | A commercial advertises ABBA's rediscovered Christmas album. With Kate McKinnon, Bowen Yang, Kristen Wiig, and Maya Rudolph. Also features James Austin Johnson as the announcer. | |
| Gifts from Mom | Parents (Kate McKinnon, James Austin Johnson) give gifts to their kids (Chloe Fineman, Marcello Hernandez) and their partners (Molly Kearney, Devon Walker). | |
| Tampon Farm | A woman (Kate McKinnon) sings about a Tampon Farm. With Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, former longtime writer Paula Pell, musical guest Billie Eilish; as well as Molly Kearney, Greta Gerwig in a disguise cameo and the entire female cast. Marcello Hernandez appears near the end of the song. Longtime former cast member Maya Rudolph reaches her 600th sketches on SNL. | |
| Billie Eilish performed "What Was I Made For?". Introduced by Kate McKinnon and Barbie director Greta Gerwig. Billie's brother Finneas O'Connell plays the piano. | ||
| Weekend Update with Colin Jost and Michael Che | Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news like Giuliani having to pay $148 million to Georgia poll workers and a video with Joe Biden and Barack Obama promoting healthcare. With guest, Rich Auntie with no kids (Ego Nwodim). Also, they make each other read jokes they've never seen before live on air to close out 2023. This was also their first Joke Swap since the season finale of Season 46. | |
| Christmas Exchange | A group of employees (Kate McKinnon, Kenan Thompson, Andrew Dismukes, Chloe Fineman, Punkie Johnson, Molly Kearney, and Michael Longfellow) do Christmas exchanges. | |
| Billie Eilish performed "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", once again with her brother Finneas O'Connell on piano and Christian McBride on bass. | ||
| Cinema Classics | On PBS' Cinema Classics, Reese De'What (Kenan Thompson) presents a scene from Meet Me in St. Louis. With Kate McKinnon, Chloe Troast, and James Austin Johnson. | |
| Whiskers R We | Barbara DeDrew (Kate McKinnon) and Paw-bree (Billie Eilish) show off the cats available for adoption during their Holiday Cat-tacular. | |
| Goodbyes and Closing Credits | Billie Eilish, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, the cast and crew of SNL and everyone are all thanked by Kate McKinnon for bringing her back home for Christmas. |
Cut for Time[]
Sketches and Musical Performances[]
Cold Open Sketch Pre-recorded Weekend Update Music Performance Other
| Title | Image | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| Weekend Update: Molly Kearney on Going Home for the Holidays | In this Cut for Time Weekend Update feature, Molly Kearney stops by to discuss spending time with their family during the holidays. | |
| Paperless Post | In this Cut for Time sketch, a commercial advertises Paperless Post's newest feature. |
Trivia[]
- Longtime former cast member Kate McKinnon becomes the eighth female former SNL cast member to come back and host, the eighth female cast member who has worked under Lorne Michaels and she host the Christmas show, after leaving the cast in 2022, after having been a cast member for 11 years. She is also the eighth longtime former cast member to host a Christmas show after Bill Murray (Season 7), Eddie Murphy (Seasons 8, 10 and 45), Jimmy Fallon (Seasons 37 and 39), Martin Short (Seasons 38 and 50), Tina Fey & Amy Poehler (Season 41), and Kristen Wiig (Season 46).
- Also, McKinnon is the fourth longtime former longtimefemale cast member to host a Christmas show, after Fey, Poehler and Wiig.
- McKinnon is also the only female cast member from Seasons 37-47 to return to SNL as host and tied for the second 5th-fasted time a former cast member has come back to host for the first time.
- McKinnon was also the 39th former SNL cast member to return as host.
- Also in this episode, McKinnon is also the 19th first-time host in SNL history to host the Christmas show during their debut, as well as the third longtime former cast member and the first female former cast member to host a holiday episode, after Eddie Murphy and Jimmy Fallon.
- Heidi Gardner and Bowen Yang says "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night" for the 22nd time, moves into a tie for 16th place all-time with longtime former cast members Taran Killam, Jay Pharoah and Aidy Bryant and for the 17th time, moves into a tie for 29th place all-time with another longtime former cast members Kevin Nealon and Dan Aykroyd.
- Longtime former cast-member Maya Rudolph reaches her milestone 600th sketch on SNL.
- Billie Eilish joins the group of the youngest Musical Guests to appear three times in SNL history.
- Billie Eilish is also the second person to perform "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" on SNL. Michael Bublé performed the classic Christmas song when Jimmy Fallon hosted on December 17, 2011, the tenth episode and Christmas show of Season 37.
- There have been many surprise guests saying "Ladies and Gentlemen..." this season.
- This also marked the last episode for writer Ben Silva (who joined the writing staff in 2021), as he left the show after 2½ years.
Trivia/Notes[]
- This is the final SNL episode of 2023.
- Season 49 (2023-24) is the first season since Season 36 (2010-11) where no cast members were shut off out of an episode in the first half.
- Every SNL cast member has appeared every episode so far in Season 49.
| Preceded by: December 9, 2023 |
Saturday Night Live episode | Followed by: January 20, 2024 |