There’s a reason Ariana Grande has hosted SNL three times (and appeared a few other times). She’s quick-witted, she’s funny, and she has an appealing taste in sketches, as evidenced by everything from the first Domingo sketch to the recent R-rated Home Alone ending rewrite she did during her latest episode. Working the show into her busy schedule sounds rough; however, and the Wicked star recently revealed how she managed to prep for Christmas while also working on Bowen Yang’s final episode.
Signing on to be the last SNL host of the year is not for the faint of heart. The episode aired just before the Christmas holiday, and the actress said she worked way ahead to get her shopping done before she started rehearsing for the sketch comedy series.
I tried to get as much of it done as I could before this week because SNL is pretty full out. But I’ve been managing to wrap some of the gifts in the morning before I leave for SNL. When I get home I’m usually too tired.
She joked in this clip from Late Night With Seth Meyers the result of this wrapping was “well-intentioned,” and it definitely sounds like a bit of an afterthought with everything else going on. Meanwhile, her hard work at 30 Rock paid off.
I personally thought Grande’s episode was the best of the season. It was certainly the most poignant when it closed with a sketch featuring Bowen Yang as a “retiring” airport employee at his last day on the job. It was a solid closing moment for an excellent episode overall, though it sounds like there was a lot more going on with Yang's exit behind the scenes.
Not every sketch Grande has worked on has worked out, though. Like so many before her, she told Seth Meyers when she becomes “attached to a sketch that doesn’t make it” it can be “really tough.” Meyers went on to joke it’s not a “person” and they don’t “put the sketch down,” but Grande confirmed it’s still heart-wrenching to lose an SNL sketch she poured time and effort into.
You become very excited about these things. Very attached. And you become close with the writers and the cast. And when one of them doesn’t make it, you can never, like, reference it, because no one ever knows about it except you guys. That’s really mournful. It’s hard.
However, her most memorable cut for time sketch was one she did with Taran Killam. The sketch, called “New Studio” is apparently her dad’s favorite thing she’s done on the show. It also features very longtime player Kenan Thompson and Vanessa Bayer and it’s “very niche,” as Grande politely put it.
There are lots of great "Cut For Time" sketches that fans are familiar with thanks to SNL now pushing them out in places like YouTube. Some of them the Internet even gets a little obsessed with, including this recent Jacob Elordi Pimp My Ride-themed sketch.
Listen, technically Grande has appeared on SNL five times already, and she’s well on her way to the Five-Timers Club, an elite group of celebs that have hosted at least that many times. Those numbers include Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson (who's explained why the "delirious" feeling you get on SNL is worth it) and many more a-listers, and I think Grande is well on her way to ranking among them. She may just need to learn to kill a few more darlings, first.