‘Saturday Night Live’: Pete Hegseth address the White House press room, and more best moments from Melissa McCarthy’s hosting gig
Zach Laws
After a three-week holiday hiatus, Saturday Night Live returned to the airwaves on Dec. 6 with one of their favorite hosts: Five-Timers Club member Melissa McCarthy. The timing couldn't be better, since she was just hired to be the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Star (everyone needs a side hustle).
McCarthy hosted the long-running sketch comedy series in 2011, 2013, 2014, 2016, and 2017, and made a guest appearance on Season 50 to help induct Martin Short into the Five-Timers Club. She earned Emmy nominations as Best Comedy Guest Actress for all five of her previous SNL appearances, winning the prize in 2017 (she previously won the Best Comedy Actress award for Mike & Molly in 2011, competing once again in 2012 and 2014). The two-time Oscar nominee (Best Supporting Actress for Bridesmaids in 2011 and Best Actress for Can You Ever Forgive Me? in 2018) returned to Studio 8H with musical guest Dijon.
McCarthy is the sixth person to host SNL's 51st season, following Bad Bunny (with musical guest Doja Cat) on Oct. 4, Amy Poehler (with musical guest Role Model) on Oct. 11, Sabrina Carpenter (who was also the musical guest) on Oct. 18, Miles Teller (with musical guest Brandi Carlile) on Nov. 1, Nikki Glaser (with musical guest Sombr) on Nov. 8, and Glen Powell (with musical guest Olivia Dean) on Nov. 15. Saturday Night Live recently added 11 Emmy Awards to its shelf in September, bringing its overall tally to 112.
Here are Melissa McCarthy's best moments from her latest SNL hosting gig.
COLD OPEN
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (Colin Jost) aggressively addressed press questions about a possible war with Venezuela. "You got questions?," he shouted. "Pretend I'm a random fishing boat and fire away!" Former Republican congressman turned One America News host Matt Gaetz (Sarah Sherman) wanted to make sure that drug traffickers were the only sort of traffickers that would be targeted for attack, which was good news to him. Hegseth assured the press he had the full backing of President Donald Trump (James Austin Johnson), who was sleeping in a corner dreaming about his next meeting with New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani. ("Stop, Mamdani," he whispered in his sleep. "You can raise my rent anytime.")
OPENING MONOLOGUE
As she took to the main stage at Studio 8H for the sixth time, Melissa McCarthy wanted to get the audience in the holiday spirit with some singing, some snow, and a little piano playing... all of which went spectacularly wrong before Kenan Thompson (aka "Santa Kenan") showed up to save the day.
DONNA THE DELIVERY LADY
It's only been 17 days on the job, and Donna the UPS delivery lady (McCarthy) is already getting called into the front office to address customer complaints. Although she's presented with video evidence by her bosses (Mikey Day and Ashley Padilla), Donna denies she damaged the customer's packages and defecated on their porch. She tries to get out of trouble by pulling her go-to trick — pretending to faint in her chair — and tries to wheel her way out of the office with her eyes closed (even Day couldn't keep a straight face during that one).
FREE SAMPLE
Who doesn't love a free sample from the grocery story? One lonely shopper (McCarthy) is so moved when a store employee (Jeremy Culhane) offers her some free goat cheese that she goes to extreme lengths to repay him. Sometimes a simple act of kindness can have dire consequences.
WEEKEND UPDATE
After giving the week's headlines, Jost spoke with a redhead (Ben Marshall) who had just come back from vacation and got a little too much sun ... so much sun, in fact, that he's now able to microwave a frozen dinner with his hands. Later, Jost spoke with that raccoon (Sarah Sherman) who got drunk after breaking into an ABC store, and showed up looking for more fun at the Weekend Update desk.
A HELPING HAND
With the holidays just around the corner, an elderly shut-in (McCarthy) takes a liking to a neighborhood boy who's constantly being bullied. But this old woman isn't exactly helpless, as the poor kid soon finds out.
Can you get the deets on the jumpsuit AND BELT she wore in the opening? She looks AMAZING