The actor who admitted they were “one of the more awful” hosts in ‘Saturday Night Live’ history
It doesn’t matter if you’re an actor, comedian, athlete, or politician; hosting Saturday Night Live isn’t an easy gig, and there are no guarantees that someone will sink or swim until it hits the airwaves.
Someone being considered one of the best in their chosen arena doesn’t guarantee that they’ll be able to hold the live audience in the palm of their hands when the cameras are rolling. Live television is a difficult thing, and live comedy is exponentially harder, so it’s a total crapshoot until the pressure is on.
The sketch show’s preferred model of drafting in guests to front episodes, and the weekly model that’s kept it going strong for over 50 years, means that Lorne Michaels and his team can’t audition potential comperes. An offer goes out, and it’s either accepted or refused, and then it’s in the hands of the comedy gods.
If a host does well, they’ll be invited back, and maybe even join the illustrious five-timers club. If they’re shite, and many of them have been, they’ll never be seen in Studio 8H again. Many cinema stars, including the infamous Steven Seagal, shat the bed when they fronted Saturday Night Live, but nobody really mentions Patrick Stewart as one of the all-time worst.
In February 1994, when Star Trek: The Next Generation was in the final throes of its seven-season run, the distinguished thespian was placed under the harsh and unforgiving spotlight. Even though he can be a very funny man, as he’s shown in the likes of American Dad and Blunt Talk, he found himself ill-equipped.
“This should have been one of my crowning achievements, as it is for many of the actors, comics, and athletes who get to host the show,” he wrote in his memoir, Making It So. “But I wasn’t as loose then as I am now, and I found the whole experience incredibly stressful.”
He was no stranger to live performance, having spent years treading the boards before making the leap to Hollywood, but in the mid-1990s, comedy wasn’t his forte, and he knew it. “My opening monologue was one of the more awful ones in the history of the show,” he added. “Full of lame Star Trek jokes that I failed to land, and I just didn’t connect with SNL‘s cast, as talented a group as they were.”
Only on SNL could you see Stewart and Salt-N-Pepa in the same room at the same time, but it wasn’t the most memorable episode. It fell as flat with the crowd as it did with the millions who were watching at home, leaving the veteran despondent at failing abysmally at what turned out to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Could he do a better job now? Absolutely, with Stewart’s funny bone only becoming more pronounced in the last 30 years. If SNL hasn’t invited him back since then, though, then he’s not getting the chance to prove it.
