Roddy Ricch has dropped out as Saturday’s “SNL” musical guest following a “recent COVID exposure,” he said Wednesday. Bleachers, Jack Antonoff’s New York City-based indie pop band, is stepping in as host Ariana DeBose’s musical guest.
“Due to recent COVID exposure on my team and to keep everyone safe I won’t be able to perform on ‘SNL’ this weekend,” Ricch posted on Instagram. “I’m working with the ‘SNL’ team to lock in a new date though!”
Saturday will be Bleachers’ “SNL” musical guest debut. Their third studio album, “Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night,” was released last year.
Ricch is the latest musical guest to get scrapped over something related to COVID-19. Last season, Morgan Wallen was dropped from the Oct. 10, 2020 episode after he was seen in social media videos partying in Alabama without a mask on (these were the pre-vaccine days). He would later end up performing on the Dec. 5 episode. Charli XCX dropped out of the Dec. 18, 2021 episode amid the Omicron surge.
“SNL” returns this week for its first show of 2022. The NBC sketch show’s last episode of 2021 was heavily altered because of rising COVID cases, with many in the cast reportedly testing positive. Paul Rudd hosted a stripped down episode that also featured Tom Hanks and Tina Fey. The episode ended up being a mix of sketches recorded earlier in the week and other classic “SNL” holiday sketches. There was no musical guest after Charli XCX announced on Twitter she would not be appearing on the show “due to the limited crew at tonight’s taping.”
DeBose, who stars as Anita in Steven Spielberg’s remake of the classic musical “West Side Story,” is making her hosting debut. Along with “West Side Story,” DeBose has appeared in Netflix’s “The Prom” and Apple TV+’s “Schmigadoon!” DeBose was part of the original cast for “Hamilton” and can be seen in the filmed version for Disney+.
“SNL” has two more January shows on the 22nd and 29th, with hosts and musical guests to be announced.
“Saturday Night Live” is produced in association with Broadway Video. Lorne Michaels is creator and executive producer.