Tracy Morgan will host ‘Saturday Night Live’ in his return to performing
Man, I haven’t watched an episode of SNL live in years upon years. But Tracy Morgan’s first return to performing demands that I break that streak this fall.
Saturday Night Live‘s 41st season will kick off in October, with the third episode to be hosted by actor and comedian Tracy Morgan, NBC announced today.
Morgan will host the show Oct. 17, following singer Miley Cyrus on Oct. 3 — her third time hosting — and comedian Amy Schumer’s hosting debut on Oct. 10. NBC said it will announce the episodes’ musical guests at a later date.
The third show will represent Morgan’s long-awaited return to his performing career. Morgan was seriously injured in a six-vehicle highway accident in June 2014, when the limousine he was traveling in was rear-ended by a Wal-Mart tractor-trailer. Morgan suffered brain trauma and several broken bones in the crash, and two other passengers were seriously injured, while his friend and fellow comedian James “Jimmy Mack” McNair was killed.
“I love comedy and I can’t wait to get back to her, but right now my goal is just to heal and get better because I’m not 100 percent yet, I’m not,” Morgan said on the Today show this past June, in his first interview since the accident. Sitting with a cane in one hand, Morgan was speaking less than a week after settling a lawsuit he had filed against Wal-Mart regarding the crash.
Morgan’s SNL appearance Oct. 17 will be his second time hosting the show. He first hosted SNL in March 2009, during his run as Tracy Jordan, an amped-up version of himself, on the sitcom 30 Rock. Morgan was a cast member on SNL for eight seasons from 1996 to 2003.
“Stoked to be going home,” said Morgan on Twitter today, following the announcement of his upcoming hosting gig.