‘SNL’ to air without live audience amid Omicron COVID-19 spread
Global News
The show returned for its 47th year in September with 16 cast members and five featured players, a particularly crowded field.
People’s Sexiest Man Alive of 2021 is set to be inducted into the vaunted Five-Timers Club on “Saturday Night Live,” but the surging omicron variant of the coronavirus means there won’t be a live audience to see it happen.
The long-running sketch comedy show announced on social media Saturday afternoon that the night’s episode, featuring “Ant-Man” star Paul Rudd as host, would tape without a live audience and with only limited cast and crew “due to the recent spike in the Omicron variant and out of an abundance of caution.”
British pop star Charli XCX had been scheduled to perform but announced Saturday afternoon on Twitter that she would not be allowed to perform.
“Due to the limited crew at tonight’s taping of snl my musical performances will no longer be able to go ahead,” she wrote. “I am devastated and heartbroken.”
She then urged her fans to “look after yourselves out there and make sure you get vaccinated if you haven’t already.”
Rudd is returning to Studio 8H as host for the fifth time — typically a milestone of much fanfare. The Dec. 18 episode was the NBC show’s last announced episode for the year.
It’s unclear which cast members will appear on Saturday’s show, which usually tapes a dress rehearsal at 8 p.m., followed by the live show at 11:30 p.m.
The show returned for its 47th year in September with 16 cast members and five featured players, a particularly crowded field. The size of the cast has allowed for atypical flexibility for its high-profile members, who can now take time off for other projects during the season.
This year, the toy drive will support nearly 200 Ukrainian children in the Central Okanagan.
The choice of Trump's former acting attorney general Matt Whitaker is an unusual one, given his background in law enforcement and not in foreign policy or diplomacy.
Israel has continued to pound Hezbollah throughout the cease-fire attempts, and rockets have continued to rain down on northern Israel.
The precautionary step came after Russian officials promised a response to President Joe Biden’s decision to let Ukraine strike targets on Russian soil with U.S.-made missiles.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken recognized González in a post on X in which he also demanded “respect for the will” of Venezuelan voters.
Officials were worried the hamsters would target the plane's electrical wiring system.
Marius Borg Høiby is facing yet another charge after a slew of accusations in recent months.
Uranium enriched at 60 per cent purity is just a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90 per cent, according to the UN report.
The alleged developments marked a worrying new escalation in the conflict that has repeatedly ratcheted up international tensions.
The foreign ministries of Finland and Germany said that the damage raised suspicion of sabotage.
Putin’s endorsement of the new nuclear deterrent policy comes on the 1,000th day after he sent troops into Ukraine, on Feb. 24, 2022.