Taylor Swift is all over the place amid the release of her new album, “Life of a Showgirl.” But now, fans are hoping she’ll be “live from New York” for the 51st season of “Saturday Night Live” on Oct. 4.
The musical guest has already been announced as Doja Cat, and with Bad Bunny as the host, the NBC late-night show seems to have the music covered for its season 51 premiere.
But Swifties are about nothing more than Easter eggs, and they’re clinging to clues that TS could make a surprise pitstop at Studio 8H this weekend. Because it’s not like she hasn’t done it before.
Taylor Swift Has a Blank Space on Her Schedule
Ahead of the release of “Life of a Showgirl” at midnight on Oct. 3, Swift’s social media team posted a publicity schedule that listed the dates and times of release parties and the singer’s appearances on late-night talk shows with Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, both of whom tape their shows in New York City. But in the slot for the night of Oct. 4, the schedule simply says “Standby” underneath a hole punch.
Fans reacted in the comment section and speculated on what it could mean.
“But what are we standing by for on 10/4,“ one fan asked.
“10/4 is the SNL Season Premiere! ❤️🔥,” another replied.
“SNL!!!” others agreed,
Others pointed out that the hole punch was at the 7 p.m. mark on the schedule, which would make it too early for SNL, which starts at 7:30 pm. But others note that there was a line drawn down from the 7 p.m. time and into the late night.
Taylor Swift Has a Long History With SNL
Swift is no stranger to the “Saturday Night Live” stage. She first appeared as a musical guest on the show in 2009 and has served as host/musical guest five times since then.
Former SNL writer Seth Meyers once revealed that Swift came to her first hosting gig with her own idea for a monologue.
“Here’s a 19-year-old who nobody is really helping out; nobody gave her a manual of how to do that show. And yet, she came to us and said, ‘I wrote a song for the opening monologue,’” he told Sirius XM’s Howard Stern Show, per The Hollywood Reporter. “So we brought Taylor into Lorne’s office, and she sings this song which is not only a beautiful song by a beautiful singer, it’s a perfect SNL monologue. Fully formed. To this day, I’ve never had a moment like that where someone brings you a fully gift-wrapped present and it’s exactly what you need it to be.”
In addition to her hosting roles, Swift also surprised fans with cameos on SNL twice. In 2014, Swift crashed Seth Rogen’s monologue to help him out. And in 2023, she made a very quick cameo to introduce musical guest Ice Spice.
One other cameo never came to fruition. According to Vulture, in 2015, SNL showrunner Lorne Michaels tried to get the singer to make a cameo in a spoof of her “Bad Blood” music video, but she turned it down—and then asked him to cut the sketch. Michaels went ahead with the sketch anyway.
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Why Fans Think Taylor Swift Will Make a Surprise Cameo on SNL Season 51 Premiere