SNL scraps show and sends cast home amid coronavirus fears; Tom Hanks and Tina Fey pitch in [View all]

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Source: Washington Post

In a first for “Saturday Night Live,” hours before an episode was set to air, producers scrapped the planned show and sent most of the cast home.

“Due to the recent spike in the Omicron variant and out of an abundance of caution, there will be no live audience for tonight’s taping of 'Saturday Night Live’ and the show will have limited casts and crew,” read a statement posted to the show’s Twitter account on Saturday afternoon. Charli XCX, the musical guest, tweeted that she was told she would no longer be able to perform due to coronavirus pandemic precautions.

Instead, as the show kicked off at 11:30 p.m., none other than Tom Hanks strolled out in front of a mostly empty, eerily quiet studio. “Thank you, surviving crew members,” Hanks said, as a few people applauded.

He noted that SNL planned to do its big Christmas show and induct host Paul Rudd into the “five timer’s club” — celebrities who have hosted the show five times — but thanks to the surge of coronavirus cases and in the interest of safety, that was not meant to be. (Before the show, the New York Post and Variety reported that multiple cast members tested positive for the coronavirus, though this did not come up on the air.)

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2021/12/19/snl-covid-show-tom-hanks-tina-fey/