The midseason finale of “Saturday Night Live” went out not with a bang, but with a whimper.
Just hours before the episode was expected to air with host Paul Rudd and musical guest Charli XCX, the late-night show relayed an announcement on Twitter that there would be no live audience “due to the recent spike in the Omicron variant and out of an abundance of caution,” adding “the show will have limited cast and crew.”
Charli XCX, who had earlier teased a performance of her latest single “New Shapes” with electropop artists Caroline Polachek and Christine and the Queens, also did not go on as scheduled, citing the limited crew. The musician wrote that she was “devastated and heartbroken” by the news, but clarified that she “didn’t decide to cancel or pull out of the show” herself.
“We were informed at around 3pm ish that my segment of the show wouldn’t be able to go ahead for everyone’s safety and so there was nothing we could do,” wrote XCX.
It was the first time “SNL” abandoned a rehearsed episode, sending much of the cast and crew home (Kenan Thompson and Michael Che were the only cast members to appear on the show live.) While the show has not yet confirmed any breakthrough cases among its staff, Variety reported that “numerous cast and crew members have tested positive for COVID in recent days.”
It’s the latest high-profile entertainment cancelation in New York City. In the week leading up to the episode, the New York Times reported the remainder of the Radio City Rockettes’ Christmas shows would not go on at the venue near Rockefeller Plaza where “SNL” is filmed. Nine Broadway shows, including “MJ the Musical,” “Hamilton,” “Mrs. Doubtfire” and “Jagged Little Pill,” also recently canceled their performances due to breakthrough cases, per the Hollywood Reporter.
The state of New York revealed that nearly 22,000 people had tested positive for COVID on Friday afternoon, with more than half of those test results reported in New York City, though city data shows new hospitalizations and deaths are averaging well below their spring 2020 peak, according to the Associated Press.
Understandably, the resulting episode of “SNL” seemed to lose its footing, save for a pretty good “Home Goods”-centered sketch starring Kate McKinnon and Aidy Bryant, and the surprise appearances of Tom Hanks and Tina Fey, who joined Rudd on stage to congratulate him for his fifth time hosting the show, presenting him with a “Five-Timers Club” jacket.
Onstage, Hanks reminded the sparse crowd that he spearheaded the exclusive society for returning hosts — (“Oh, like you started COVID?” joked Fey) — and had looked forward to inducting Rudd, but because of the surge in coronavirus cases, “the big Christmas show” could not go on as planned.
“But I came here from California,” he said. “And if you think I’m going to fly 3,000 miles and not be on TV, well, you got another thing coming.”
Most of the new sketches were pre-recorded, including a music video starring Kyle Mooney as a six-year-old boy in a department store hoping to buy his mother a pair of socks for Christmas after his bird, TJ Rocks — portrayed by Charli XCX in a brief appearance — goes missing.
At the end of the episode, Rudd acknowledged the show’s unexpected challenges.
“As my good friend Tom Hanks once said in a movie, ‘Life’s like a big, weird chocolate bar,’” he said. “Sometimes it’s delicious. Other times, it’s got that orange cream filling in it and it’s like, OK, it’s not what I would have chosen, but it’s better than nothing.”