January 21, 2023 Season 48 episode
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| Episode | 940 |
| Season Episode | 10 |
| Host | Aubrey Plaza |
| Musical Guest(s) | Sam Smith |
| Song(s) performed by Musical Guest(s) |
"Unholy" with Kim Petras "Gloria" |
| Previous Episode December 17, 2022 |
Next Episode January 28, 2023 |
The 940th episode and 10th episode of Saturday Night Live's 48th season premiered on January 21, 2023. It was hosted by actress, comedian and producer Aubrey Plaza, star of the NBC classic sitcom Parks and Recreation and the HBO anthology series The White Lotus and the hit films The To Do List, Life After Beth, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, Child's Play, Happiest Season, The Little Hours, Ingrid Goes West, Emily the Criminal and Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre, My Old Ass, Megalopolis, Animal Friends and The Ark and the Aardvark. English singer and songwriter Sam Smith was the musical guest. This was Aubrey Plaza's hosting debut, as well as Sam Smith's 4th appearance and 3rd time as the musical guest on SNL.
The last time Sam Smith was the musical guest was on October 7, 2017, the second episode of SNL's 43rd season, hosted by the Israeli actress Gal Gadot, star of the DC Extended Universe hit films Wonder Woman and Wonder Woman 1984.
The goodnights speech for Aubrey Plaza is "Thank You to Sam Smith, Kim Petras, Amy Poehler, Tony Hawk, Drew and Jonathan Scott, Sharon Stone, Thank You to the Cast and Crew I Love You So Much, Thank You and Have a Good Night, Dreams Really Do Come True". (Cheers and applause)
Cast[]
Repertory Players[]
- Michael Che
- Mikey Day
- Andrew Dismukes
- Chloe Fineman
- Heidi Gardner
- Punkie Johnson
- Colin Jost
- Ego Nwodim
- Kenan Thompson
- Bowen Yang
Featured Players[]
- Cameos by longtime former cast member and Weekend Update co-anchor Amy Poehler, the Property Brothers, Tony Hawk, and Sharon Stone; pre-taped cameos by U.S. President Joe Biden and Allison Williams; onscreen appearances by talent coordinator Jeff Blake and set designers Akira Yoshimura, Keith Raywood, and Joe DeTullio. Guest musical appearance Kim Petras.
Sketches and Musical Performances[]
Cold Open Sketch Pre-recorded Weekend Update Music Performance Other
| Title | Image | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| NFL on Fox Cold Opening | Howie Long (Mikey Day), Curt Menefee (Kenan Thompson), Jimmy Johnson (James Austin Johnson), Michael Strahan (Devon Walker, and Terry Bradshaw (Molly Kearney) interview George Santos (Bowen Yang), who makes up his own stats. With Ego Nwodim as Pam Oliver. | |
| Opening Montage | Cecily Strong is removed from the opening montage, as she left the show following the previous month's Christmas show. | |
| Monologue by Aubrey Plaza | Hosting for the first time, actress, comedian and producer Aubrey Plaza talks about her demeanor, how she's beat Biden as the most famous person from Delaware (including a pre-taped message from him), and a tour of the stage. Also Features Kenan Thompson. Cameos by longtime former SNL cast member and Plaza's Parks & Rec co-star Amy Poehler, talent coordinator Jeff Blake and set designers Akira Yoshimura, Joe DeTullio and Keith Raywood. | |
| Miss Universe | The Ms. Universe contestants (Heidi Gardner, Ego Nwodim, Chloe Fineman, Punkie Johnson, Sarah Sherman, Molly Kearney, and Audrey Plaza) scream all of their bizarre answers, much to the chagrin of the host (Kenan Thompson). Cameos by the Property Brothers and Tony Hawk. | |
| The Black Lotus | The staff (Ego Nwodim, Kenan Thompson, and Punkie Johnson) with Jennifer Coolidge (Chloe Fineman), as well a cast of characters (Aubrey Plaza, Devon Walker, Michael Longfellow, Sarah Sherman, Heidi Gardner, Marcello Hernandez, Andrew Dismukes, and Bowen Yang). | |
| Taboo | A couple (Aubrey Plaza and Mikey Day) list all the toxic things about each other. With Kenan Thompson, Ego Nwodim, Heidi Gardner, and Michael Longfellow as the couple's friends. | |
| Morning Announcements | Two nuns (Molly Kearney, Aubrey Plaza). The nun played by Plaza starts to question her belief in God after she died for 2 minutes, and she didn't go to heaven. With Andrew Dismukes as Christopher O'Malley and Sarah Sherman as Tina. | |
| Megan 2.0 | A movie trailer introduces a sequel for the murderous doll M3GAN, M3GAN 2.0. Aubrey Plaza as Megan 2.0, with Chloe Fineman as Megan 1.0. Kenan Thompson, Michael Longfellow, and Bowen Yang play different characters. Cameo by Allison Williams. | |
| Sam Smith performed "Unholy" with Kim Petras | ||
| Weekend Update with Colin Jost and Michael Che | Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, like Biden and Trump's classified document scandals and a 118-year-old nun dying. With guests, George Santos (Bowen Yang) stops by to address allegations that he's lied about key details of his life and local government employees April Ludgate (Aubrey Plaza) and Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) from Parks & Recreation stop by the Update desk to talk about working for the government. Michael Che hits his 200th Weekend Update segments on SNL | |
| Avatar | The Avatar creatures (Mikey Day, Kenan Thompson, Ego Nwodim, Devon Walker, and Sarah Sherman) question two members (Heidi Gardner, Aubrey Plaza) who they suspect to be humans. Mikey Day reached his 500th sketches on SNL. | |
| Sam Smith performed "Gloria'. Sharon Stone makes a non-speaking appearance in this performance. | ||
| HIV | A straight man (Devon Walker) is uncomfortable filming a HIV commercial. With Aubrey Plaza as the director, and Mikey Day and Marcello Hernandez as two fellow actors. | |
| Film Noir | In an old fake black and white film, a woman (Aubrey Plaza) is accused of murdering her 80-year-old husband. James Austin Johnson plays the detective Jack Raughley. Sharon Stone cameos as Plaza's character's mother. | |
| Goodbyes and Closing Credits | Aubrey Plaza thanked Sam Smith, Kim Petras, Amy Poehler, Tony Hawk, Jonathan and Drew Scott and Sharon Stone, Lorne Michaels, the cast, crew and everyone at SNL for having her here, she loved them, and dreams really do come true. During the goodnights, Plaza wearing her vintage Megadeth T-shirt. |
Trivia[]
- Michael Che hits his 200th Weekend Update segment and Mikey Day reached his milestone 500th sketch respectively on SNL.
- President Joe Biden's appearance marks the first time since the former 38th president of the United States, Gerald Ford that a sitting president has appeared on SNL, when he made a cameo on April 17, 1976, the seventeenth episode of Season 1, hosted by the former government official who served as the 15th White House Press Secretary, Ron Nessen with musical guest Patti Smith.
- Another member of the Parks department hosted SNL this week.
- Plaza is also the fifth cast member from Parks and Recreation to host SNL, after Poehler, Rob Lowe, Chris Pratt, and Aziz Ansari.
- SNL Headliners Aubrey Plaza and Sam Smith are the 29th pair to kick off a New Year as the First Time Host and Returning Musical Guest.
- New Year, new hosts. January is the month with the most first-time hosts in SNL history.
- Aubrey Plaza and Amy Poehler reprised their roles as April Ludgate and Leslie Knope from NBC's classic comedy series Parks and Recreation in the Weekend Update segment.
- Starting with this episode, Heidi Gardner (who has been in the cast since 2017) becomes the longest-tenured current female cast member. At this point, Gardner had been in the cast for six years.
| Preceded by: December 17, 2022 |
Saturday Night Live episode | Followed by: January 28, 2023 |