(From left) Mindy Kaling, Quinta Brunson, and Tom CruisePhoto: Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images for Netflix
Ahead of Saturday Night Live season 48, which kicks off on October 1, eight cast members left the show: Pete Davidson, Aidy Bryant, Kyle Mooney, Chris Redd, Aristotle Athari, Kate McKinnon, Alex Moffat, and Melissa Villaseñor. So in what figures to be a season of change at the long-running sketch show, here’s hoping that extends to the hosts, another aspect of SNL that could some fresh blood. Miles Teller, Brendan Gleeson, and Megan Thee Stallion (pulling double duty as the week’s musical guest) are set to host the first three episodes this season, and they’re all solid choices who’ve never hosted the show before. But there are plenty of other celebrities who’d be perfect for the gig—for instance Dave Bautista proved his comedic chops in Guardians Of The Galaxy, Quinta Brunson just won an Emmy for comedy writing for Abbott Elementary and she has a sketch comedy background to boot, and Jennifer Coolidge has just never hosted, which is practically a crime. Here, then, are 10 more hosts we’d love to see fronting at SNL during season 48.
Tom Cruise
is the biggest movie of the year, so why the hell is Miles Teller our first SNL host this year? For one thing, as hard as it is to believe, Tom Cruise has never hosted the show. Not once. We know he can do comedy (he can will himself to do anything). His 2000 MTV Movie Awards sketch, opposite Ben Stiller and John Woo, proved he can do a filmed sketch. It’s time for Tom Cruise to take a break from trying to kill himself for our entertainment and host SNL. Unless he’s chicken. Maybe the one stunt he’s afraid to pull off is live comedy. Prove us wrong, Tom Cruise. Prove us wrong. [Matt Schimkowitz]
Quinta Brunson
Quinta Brunson hosting is a no-brainer (although what’s up for debate is whether NBC’s sketch comedy deserves her immense talent). She’s had a terrific year with and its well-deserved Emmy wins, so I’m actually surprised she wasn’t one of the first three hosts named this season. Lorne Michaels can rectify that error—and perhaps even take some writing advice from Brunson for her sketches. After all, she’s delivered in the past with terrific YouTube standup videos. [Saloni Gajjar]
I cannot believe Mindy Kaling has never hosted SNL despite her stellar track record from to , and everything in-between. She would absolutely crush it with her comedy chops. Much like Brunson, she’s equipped with the kind of writing talent SNL lacks at the moment. Her input and performance will elevate the sketches. Perhaps her stint could be timed to the release of HBO Max’s season two in November. [Saloni Gajjar]
Matt Berry
He may be best known to American audiences as Laszlo in , but Matt Berry has been a fixture of British comedy for more than a decade, so he’s certainly got the chops for a hosting gig. But really I just want to hear him say, “Live from Newww Yaaak Citay, it’s Saturday Night!” [Cindy White]
With an Emmy under her belt, is primed for a hosting slot at SNL. Of improv troupe fame, she’s showcased her knack for over and over again—despite her attempt to join the SNL cast in 1995. She’ll soon appear in the second season of , as well as the rom-com Shotgun Wedding and Legally Blonde 3, giving her a perfect time peg for this season. She’s a comedic force and a national treasure, dammit, and it’s her time to shine! [Gabrielle Sanchez]
Viola Davis
Viola Davis has spoken frankly, as is her wont, about unequal opportunity when it comes to acting roles offered her. That she’s risen through the ranks to become an award-winning icon is a testament to her talent, but it’s a failure of Hollywood’s imagination that she’s synonymous mostly with intense nuance. Give this goofy sheep in dramatist’s clothing some sketch comedy! Davis would hit SNL out of the park like she did in the quirky Troop Zero or as bone-dry hilarious Amanda Waller in . And no shade to her history-making, Emmy-winning role, but it takes somebody with a firm grasp of camp to sell a long-running drama as ludicrous as How To Get Away With Murder. You can’t tell me the person responsible doesn’t have comedic chops. [Jack Smart]
Dave Bautista
How many times does Dave Bautista have to be great at everything (being serious, being funny, and I assume wrestling) before we as a society acknowledge that he’s great at everything? Not that hosting SNL should still be held up as some great honor, since they’ve had some real assholes taking that stage in the last few years, but Bautista would be incredible and he deserves the chance to put on a black hoodie and a fake goatee so he can play John Fetterman in a political sketch of some kind. He’s even got something to plug, with him appearing as the Dave Bautista character (a big guy with glasses who seems kind of sad) in M. Night Shyamalan’s ! [Sam Barsanti]
Tatiana Maslany
Has anyone proved themselves to be a perfect potential SNL host better than Tatiana Maslany? Orphan Black showed she can embody a range of characters with disparate accents and comedic sensibilities (plus, she can really work a wig). Her starring role on positions her as part of the biggest franchise in the world and gives her the cultural relevance necessary for a buzzy host. And by the way, she came up in her native Canada. The woman deserves a better shot at SNL than a bit part in a lesser-known! [Mary Kate Carr]
Tim Robinson
Tim Robinson was never the best writer/performer when it came to fitting his very specific comedic sensibilities into SNL’s more prosaic rhythms—possessing an unquenchable and uncomfortable weirdness that’s gone on to make his Netflix series I Think You Should Leave one of the best sketch shows of the last decade, while SNL has continued to … well, you know. But what if he wasn’t the one who had to change? Why not have the show bend to him, as host, instead of the other way around? John Mulaney’s proved that these kinds of former-writer victory laps can pay huge dividends; if nothing else, the result of a Robinson-led Saturday Night Live would be an incredibly strange piece of TV. [William Hughes]
Meg Stalter
Now here’s a host who can out-write the writers’ room. Meg Stalter cut her teeth on strange and luminous impression work: think “” or “” Now, she’s most recognizable as Hacks’ hilarious secret weapon, the confidently inept receptionist Kayla. With a semi-autobiographical HBO series on the way, it’s high time Stalter got the SNL treatment. Her stand-up is as resonant as her character work (promising a rare balanced episode) and her unique affect is mesmerizing on screen. Plus, who would dare argue with ? [Hattie Lindert]