Saturday Night Live: Kieran Culkin and Ed Sheeran Take the Stage at 30 Rock Tonight
Kieran Culkin is hours away from making his hosting debut on Saturday Night Live, nearly 30 years to the date he first appeared on the series in a cameo role. Culkin is currently starring in the third season of HBO's wildly popular dark comedy Succession, and is appearing on the live sketch comedy in support of the show. Culkin first appeared as a background player during a sketch as his older brother Macaulay hosted the Thanksgiving 1991 episode on November 23, 1991.
Joining Culkin in-person at the studio is Ed Sheeran. Saturday's appearance will be Sheeran's third performance at Studio 8H, despite the singer having contracted COVID-19 last month. Hours after the series announced the singer-songwriter as a musical guest during the October 23rd episode, Sheeran confirmed he had been diagnosed with the viral infection. The singer has confirmed he's since undergone any quarantining requirements and is now cleared to perform in-person on Saturday Night Live.
"I tested for COVID and I announced it a couple days afterward, because I had to cancel stuff, basically," Sheeran said in a recent appearance on The Howard Stern Show. "But it's quite an odd thing, getting that and then having to announce it to the world, and then suddenly… Like, I'm now out of it now, and I'm still sort of being treated…"
He added, "Yeah. It's kind of an uncomfortable… I really didn't want to announce it to everyone. But I had to cancel three big things in England, and I didn't want to be rude and like 'I just don't want to turn up for this.'"
Sheeran's fourth studio album, =, came out October 29th.
There are still at least two more episodes planned before the show breaks for a Thanksgiving hiatus. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania star Jonathan Majors is appearing on the November 134th episode with SNL mainstay Taylor Swift as musical guest. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings star Simu Liu is then hosting the following week with hip-hop artist Saweetie.
As with all other episodes this season, SNL streams live on Peacock simultaneously as its live broadcast on NBC. The show begins at 11:30 p.m. Eastern.