NBC just announced who will be hosting the season premiere of Saturday Night Live on September 13.  I'll let you take a second and guess who it is.  My colleague John Kubicek correctly predicted this, as I'm sure literally thousands of others did.  Think about it.  The Olympics were just on NBC, breaking ratings records in the process, and who was the biggest star in Beijing?  That's right - Michael Phelps, golden god, destroyer of mortals, a man who spits in the face of world records, will be the first host of Saturday Night Live's 34th season.  Joining Phelps will be a musical guest whose music Phelps supposedly listens to prior to his races.  Yep, that notorious guzzler of cough syrup, rapper Lil' Wayne will be the season premiere's musical guest. 

Michael Phelps joins only Lebron James and Charles Barkley as athletes who have hosted Saturday Night Live's season premiere.  Phelps was the out and out star of the recent Beijing Olympics, winning eight gold medals in eight events as a 23-year old.  He's a national star, and this was a slam-dunk move by NBC.  They created Phelps' stardom, in part, during the Olympics and are now able to use it to promote the premiere of Saturday Night Live.

I'm not particularly excited about Phelps' potential as a host.  He's fairly wooden in his interviews, and doesn't have any experience with performing.  I certainly haven't seen any commercials featuring Phelps (though I'm sure they'll begin popping up soon).  Most likely, he'll be one of those hosts who shows up, gives a monologue, and then gets minimal screen time the rest of the episode, letting the cast members do the heavy lifting. 

I'm more excited about Lil' Wayne as the musical guest.  His recently released hit record Tha Carter III is one of the best albums of the year, and Wayne is a notorious wild card.  No one has any idea what the man will do on national television.  If Saturday Night Live doesn't get Wayne involved in a Digital Short, at least in some capacity, they are missing a great opportunity.


-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
Source and Image Courtesy of NBC