Tracy Morgan hosted SNL for the first time and brought his costars from 30 Rock with him!
In his opening monologue as first-time host, Tracy Morgan thanked fans for their support over the last year as he recovered from a very serious car accident that almost killed him in 2014. Also, he kicked the episode off with a reunion of 30 Rock, the long-running show in which he played Tracy Jordan alongside Alec Baldwin, Tina Fey, Jane Krakowski and Jack McBrayer.
The cold open of the night featured a spoof of this week’s first Presidential Democratic debate which featured beloved recurring SNL host Alec Baldwin as Jim Webb and Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Larry David as Bernie Sanders. David’s impersonation of Sanders is spot-on.
In the first sketch of the night, Keenan Thompson reprised his role as Steve Harvey on Family Feud which featured Morgan as a divorced husband of his other family.
Tracy Morgan also reprised his classic role as Brian Fellow on Brian Fellow’s Safari Planet! Everything was going well throughout the sketch until the camel revealed its rear-side through the end of the sketch. It turned out to be pretty hilarious, with Morgan ad-libbing a bit.
Demi Lovato also performed a couple of songs from her new album, Confident.
Given that Morgan hadn’t been back on SNL for so long, let alone as a host, he did an excellent job in his debut. Not only was he funny, he executed the scenes as if he had never missed a beat. That’s a tall order for someone who has been through what he has been through over the last year. Congrats to Tracy Morgan and welcome back!
SNL will take a couple of weeks off before returning on November 7 with controversial host Donald Trump, along with musical guest Sia.