Paul Rudd Hosted SNL Without An Audience Or Cast, And It Was A Weird Watch

In a sudden turn of events, the Dec. 18 episode of Saturday Night Live was, well, not performed in front of a live studio audience. The episode was scheduled to be the show’s holiday special featuring a very important celebrity host, Paul Rudd. However, due to a sudden breakout of the omicron variant in New York City, the cast and crew made the decision to put everyone’s health first and did not have an audience or musical guest. The hosting gig marked Rudd’s fifth time hosting the comedy show, which very few celebrities have the honor of saying. As special as the occasion was, the show was unprecedented and these tweets about SNL’s no-audience Christmas show with Paul Rudd try to make the best out of an unfortunate situation.

After a last-minute decision for the cast and audience to remain at home, the show still went on with the help of Tom Hanks and Tina Fey, who opened the show’s monologue by inducting Rudd into the “five-timers” club. The club was first mentioned by Hanks in 1990 as a special honor for those who’ve hosted SNL five times. Fey and Hanks sported a club jacket with the number “5” patched onto the front while they inducted Rudd into the group.

“I’m extremely disappointed,” Rudd said after greeting both Fey and Hanks. And he wasn’t the only one. While a few new pre-taped sketches did air, most of the episode was a clip show in which Rudd, Fey, and Hanks introduced highlights from past SNL Christmas specials. Charli XCX was dropped as the musical guest the day of the episode, and the only cast members to show up to help Rudd out were Kenan Thompson and Michael Che, the latter of which teamed up with Fey to read out Weekend Update jokes on the stage.

Twitter had some things to say about this out-of-ordinary SNL episode.

Although Rudd’s fifth time hosting the show was definitely different than previous shows, it was a solid effort and it won’t be a surprise if SNL asks Rudd to come back to re-do his five-timer episode.