Cher, Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Snoop Dogg: ‘Saturday Night Live’ concert boasts blockbuster lineup
Cher performs during the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show on Oct. 15, 2024, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Imagine you could bring together on one stage, for one night, all the musical guests that have graced “Saturday Night Live” in five decades.
Friday’s “SNL50: The Homecoming Concert” isn’t quite doing that — but the three-hour show boasts a truly epic lineup of performers.
Just one of the ways “SNL” is marking its 50th birthday, the show will be hosted by Jimmy Fallon at Radio City Music Hall, a stone’s throw from Studio 8H, and streamed live on Peacock, beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern and 5 p.m. Pacific.
Cher, Dave Grohl, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Snoop Dogg, St. Vincent and Wyclef Jean are just the most recent performers to sign up.
They join a group that includes Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Bad Bunny, The Roots, Arcade Fire, Backstreet Boys, Bonnie Raitt, Brandi Carlile, Chris Martin, David Byrne and many more. There will surely be notable surprises, too.
And it won’t just be musicians appearing on the Radio City stage: Also expected are “SNL” luminaries and alums like Ana Gasteyer, Andy Samberg, Maya Rudolph, Paul Shaffer, Tracy Morgan and Will Ferrell.
The show is produced, not surprisingly, by “SNL” creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels, along with Mark Ronson.
The concert is only one element of what has become an enormous celebration of the show’s 50 years in existence. Sunday’s “SNL50: The Anniversary Special” will air live from Studio 8H on NBC and simulcast on Peacock. The special will celebrate the occasion with yet more musical performances as well as comedy sketches.
And the musical legacy of “SNL” is explored in the documentary “Ladies and Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music,” from Oscar-winner Questlove. Also streaming on Peacock, it features a stunning opening mashup of some of the greatest acts to appear on the show.
“Watching ‘SNL’ those first seasons gave me a musical vocabulary that I don’t think would have happened on its own,” Questlove told The Associated Press last month before the special aired.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
How to watch the ‘Saturday Night Live’ 50th anniversary events
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Elizabeth Blair
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Jennifer Vanasco
Musician Bad Bunny will be featured in Friday’s SNL concert and Sunday’s live special. Here he is performing during his Most Wanted Tour at Miami’s Kaseya Center on May 24, 2024.
Saturday Night Live is making a big deal out of its 50th anniversary. There have been multiple documentaries, a film and, this weekend, three special events: a concert that will be live-streamed, a re-broadcast of the show’s first episode and an anniversary special.
“One of the reasons SNL is still so important is because it’s one of the few things left in entertainment that feels like an event,” said Robert Smigel, a veteran writer and producer on Saturday Night Live who’s worked on past specials.
“Part of it is obviously, you know, the topicality and the sketches, what’s going to go right, what’s going to go wrong. But with the musical acts, same thing.”
Amy Poehler and Tina Fey visited Jimmy Fallon to talk about the special events and to reminisce about their time as cast members:
SNL50: The Homecoming Concert celebrates SNL’s legacy of musical performances. It’s hosted by Jimmy Fallon and includes Bad Bunny, Cher, Post Malone, Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, Ms. Lauryn Hill, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and The B-52s, among many others.
HOW TO WATCH: The concert will be live Friday at Radio City Music Hall, will stream live on Peacock at 8 p.m. EST, and will play in select IMAX theaters around the country, with tickets free and first-come-first-serve.
NBC is rebroadcasting the Oct. 11, 1975, episode that started it all — back when it was called Saturday Night. It was hosted by George Carlin and featured Billy Preston and Janis Ian as the musical guests (and included a guest appearance by Andy Kaufman … and The Muppets!).
A fictional version of the making of this episode was released last fall.
Here’s a sketch from that first episode, “The Wolverines,” featuring John Belushi:
HOW TO WATCH: The first Saturday Night episode will be broadcast at 11:30 p.m. EST Saturday on NBC and Peacock. An encore broadcast of Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music airs just beforehand, at 8 p.m. EST.
The anniversary special is a live, three-hour telecast featuring such cast alumni as Adam Sandler, Amy Poehler, Tracy Morgan and Will Ferrell, as well as celebrities like Adam Driver and musicians like Paul Simon. NBC says on its website that it will feature “a half-century worth of sketches, cast members, hosts and other collaborators.”
HOW TO WATCH: SNL50: The Anniversary Special airs live at 8 p.m. EST on Sunday on NBC and Peacock.
It follows a red-carpet special hosted by TV personality Willie Geist and former SNL cast member Leslie Jones that airs at 7 p.m. EST on NBC, E! and Peacock. The red carpet will also be available on SNL’s YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, X and TikTok pages.
Friday: SNL50: The Homecoming Concert
Saturday: The first episode
SUNDAY: SNL50: The Anniversary Special
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What to know about the massive ‘Saturday Night Live’ 50th anniversary special
Live from New York, it’s a nostalgic celebration of “Saturday Night Live”!
“SNL50: The Anniversary Celebration,” which airs Sunday, will take viewers down memory lane in a three-hour star-studded event that will commemorate everything that made the NBC variety show such a pop culture staple.
Here’s what to know.
The special will air live at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT Sunday on NBC and Peacock.
Red carpet coverage will start at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT. On NBC, “SNL” alum Leslie Jones, “Sunday TODAY” host Willie Geist and comedian Matt Rogers will interview some of the biggest stars as they gear up for the special.
Amelia Dimoldenberg, the creator and host of the viral chat show “Chicken Shop Date,” will be the correspondent for the “SNL50: The Red Carpet” livestream, which will be available on all “SNL” social and digital platforms, including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, X and TikTok.
The milestone event will bring together a blend of current cast members and legendary alumni.
Chevy Chase, Garrett Morris, Jane Curtin and Laraine Newman — four of the surviving original cast members — are expected to return.
They will be joined by other alums, including: Adam Sandler, Amy Poehler, Andy Samberg, Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy, Fred Armisen, Jason Sudeikis, Jimmy Fallon, Kate McKinnon, Kenan Thompson, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Molly Shannon, Pete Davidson, Seth Meyers, Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan, Will Ferrell and Will Forte.
“It’s so exciting,” Shannon said of the special Thursday in an appearance on NBC’s “TODAY” show. “But I also forget I get nervous. There’s nothing like live performance. … I forget the adrenaline. So it’s so exciting. But it feels like coming home.”
And, of course, current cast members will also be part of the fun. Expect to also see: Michael Che, Mikey Day, Andrew Dismukes, Chloe Fineman, Heidi Gardner, Marcello Hernández, James Austin Johnson, Colin Jost, Michael Longfellow, Ego Nwodim, Sarah Sherman, Kenan Thompson, Devon Walker and Bowen Yang.
A roster of Hollywood’s biggest celebrities will also join the celebration, packing the special with even more star power.
Among the confirmed celebrities: Adam Driver, Ayo Edebiri, Bad Bunny, Dave Chappelle, John Mulaney, Kim Kardashian, Martin Short, Miley Cyrus, Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, Pedro Pascal, Peyton Manning, Quinta Brunson, Robert De Niro, Sabrina Carpenter, Scarlett Johansson, Steve Martin, Tom Hanks and Woody Harrelson.
“SNL50” has been years in the making, with Day having hinted at just how massive the celebration will be back in June 2023.
In an interview on “TODAY,” Day told hosts Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager that executive producer Lorne Michaels was already preparing.
“Oh, my gosh, it’s going to be insane,” Day said. “I haven’t heard that much, but I know Lorne’s slowly putting it together.”
Asked about potential guests, he joked: “I believe every famous person in the universe will be there. It’s wild.”
The last major “SNL” anniversary special aired in 2015, celebrating the show’s 40-year legacy with a mix of iconic sketches and several surprise appearances.
One of the most talked-about moments came in the iconic “The Californians” sketch, which Bradley Cooper and Betty White stole with an unexpected, passionate kiss. The sketch also featured pop superstar Taylor Swift and actor Kerry Washington.
This year, “SNL” has touted the next milestone special as “one night 50 years in the making.”
Sunday night’s special is the culmination of a weekend-long block of anniversary programming.
On Friday, Peacock will also air a special, “SNL50: The Homecoming Concert,” a live concert at Radio City Music Hall in New York City that is executive produced by Michaels and music producer Mark Ronson.
The show, hosted by Fallon, will include performances by Arcade Fire, Backstreet Boys, Bad Bunny, Bonnie Raitt, Brandi Carlile, Brittany Howard, Cher, Chris Martin, Dave Grohl, David Byrne, Devo, Eddie Vedder, Jack White, Jelly Roll, Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Mumford & Sons, Post Malone, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Robyn, Snoop Dogg, St. Vincent, the B-52s, the Roots and Wyclef Jean.
On Saturday, NBC will re-air the very first episode of “SNL.” The show, which was originally titled “NBC’s Saturday Night,” taped on Oct. 11, 1975. The behind-the-scenes production of the first episode recently got the Hollywood biopic treatment with the release of Jason Reitman’s “Saturday Night.”
On Peacock, fans can also stream documentaries that explore the show’s cultural influence.
“Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music,” co-directed by Oz Rodriguez and Questlove, looks back at the show’s extensive musical history. Featuring over 900 performances, the documentary examines how “SNL” has shaped the music industry.
“SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night” takes a broader look at the show’s five-decade run. The four-part series, executive produced by Academy and Emmy Award winner Morgan Neville, features interviews with more than 60 contributors to “SNL,” offering behind-the-scenes insights into its evolution and its enduring legacy in comedy and television.
Terry Dickerson is a news associate with NBC News Digital.
© 2025 NBCUniversal Media, LLC
