SNL Announces Guest Hosts, Including Aubrey Plaza; Paramount+ Orders Series Starring Nicole Kidman

Friday, January 06, 2023

SNL Announces Guest Hosts, Including Aubrey Plaza; Paramount+ Orders Series Starring Nicole Kidman

Saturday Night Live returns Jan. 21 with Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation) serving as host for the first time. Plaza stars in Emily the Criminal, currently streaming on Netflix, and HBO's The White Lotus. Sam Smith will perform as musical guest for the third time. The Academy and Grammy Award winner's new album, "Gloria," will be released Jan. 27. Michael B. Jordan will make his SNL hosting debut on Jan. 28. Jordan directs and stars in Creed III, in theaters March 3. Lil Baby will make his first appearance as musical guest. The Grammy Award winner's latest album, "It's Only Me," debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart. SNL will also air an original episode on Feb. 4 with guests to be announced. In addition to the broadcast on NBC, SNL streams live on Peacock (11:30 p.m. ET/8:30 p.m. PT). Stream every season of SNL now on Peacock.

Nicole Kidman

Paramount+ announced that Academy Award® winner Nicole Kidman is set to star in the upcoming original series Lioness alongside series leads Zoe Saldaña and Laysla De Oliveira. As previously announced, Kidman will also serve as an executive producer under her production company, Blossom Films. From Academy Award nominee Taylor Sheridan, Lioness is produced by MTV Entertainment Studios and 101 Studios exclusively for Paramount+. Lioness is based on a real-life CIA program and follows Cruz Manuelos (De Oliveira), a rough-around-the-edges but passionate young Marine recruited to join the CIA's Lioness Engagement Team to help bring down a terrorist organization from within. Saldaña will play Joe, the station chief of the Lioness program tasked with training, managing and leading her female undercover operatives.

Kidman will play Kaitlyn Meade, the CIA's senior supervisor who has had a long career of playing the politics game. She must juggle the trappings of being a woman in the high-ranking intelligence community, a wife who longs for the attention she herself can't even give and a mentor to someone veering suspiciously close to the same rocky road she’s found herself on. Lioness will also star series regulars Jill Wagner (Wipeout) as Bobby, a CIA Special Activities Division operative; Dave Annable (Brothers & Sisters) as Neil, Joe's husband and the father of their two daughters; LaMonica Garrett (Designated Survivor) and James Jordan (Yellowstone) as Tucker and Two Cups, respectively, both experienced CIA Special Activities Division operatives on Joe's team; Austin Hébert as Randy, a tech specialist in charge of surveillance; Hannah Love Lanier as Kate, Joe and Neil's daughter; Stephanie Nur as Aaliyah, the daughter of a billionaire businessman with ties to terrorism; and Jonah Wharton as Tex, another member of Joe’s team.