SNL Cancels Planned Christmas Special Due to Alarming Spike in NYC COVID Cases

Plans for the annual Saturday Night Live Christmas show were scrapped just hours before air time last night due to concerns about exploding COVID infection rates in New York City over the past several days. All but two of the show's regular cast were sent home along with musical guest Charli XCX, many of the crew and the entire studio audience. In its place, the show's producers cobbled together a replacement show featuring Tom Hanks, Tina Fey, scheduled host Paul Rudd and regular cast members Kenan Thompson and Michael Che. 

In place of the sketches the cast had been working on all week, the show ran videos of the dress rehearsals of several sketches, an improvised "Weekend Update" featuring Tina Fey and Michael Che, and clips from previous shows selected by special guest hosts Fey and Hanks. The two guests were on hand to recognize Rudd for joining SNL's Five-Timers Club, which consists of those who have hosted the program five times or more. Rudd was scheduled to host the show for the fifth time last night. Fey has hosted SNL six times and Hanks, who founded the Five-Timers Club in 1990, has hosted ten times.

As his selected sketch, Tom Hanks selected a clip from a show he hosted in 1990 — that's 31 years ago, folks. It was the Global Warming Holiday Special, in which Hanks played the favorite artist from my latest holiday mix, Dean Martin. Unfortunately, the grinches at SNL have taken the sketch down, so I've posted a sketch a fan subsequently posted that describes the sketch as best they can. The truth is, I didn't think it was all that funny anyway.