Saturday Night Live featured a star studded cast over the weekend with appearances from veteran cast members of the late-night sketch comedy television show. Since 1975, Saturday Night Live (SNL) has entertained audiences with a combination of comedy sketches and musical guests, making it a staple in televised comedy.
Justin Timberlake was host and musical guest on SNL for the fifth time and joins an elite group of individuals in the "Five Timers Club". This refers to any individual that either hosted or performed as a musical guest on Saturday Night Live at least five times. Timberlake first hosted SNL in 2003, season 29, episode 2 and was also the musical guest. Since then, he has played the role of host five times and was both host and musical guest a total of three times.
In honor of this milestone of his career, Timberlake along with quite a few SNL legends, took part in a "Five Timers Club" sketch. Making their cameo appearances were other five time or more hosts Alec Baldwin (hosted 16 times), Candice Bergen (hosted 5 times), original SNL cast member Chevy Chase (hosted 8 times), Tom Hanks (hosted 8 times), Steve Martin (hosted 15 times), and Paul Simon (host and musical guest 12 times).
Former SNL cast members Dan Aykroyd and Martin Short made appearances in the sketch as bartenders. Short hosted SNL three times, while Aykroyd, an original SNL cast member hosted just once in 2003. Aykroyd teamed up with Steve Martin that evening to revive "two wild and crazy guys", their popular Festrunk Brothers characters.
Timberlake's appearance on the show gave SNL the best ratings the show has seen in over a year. "Saturday Night Live," with host and musical guest Justin Timberlake, averaged a 5.9/15 in metered-market households, the show's top overnight ratings in 14 months, since January 7, 2012. SNL "scored the #1 rating of the night among ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox in metered-market households, topping all primetime telecasts on those networks", said an NBC press release.
Timberlake's work with SNL has landed him two Emmy awards for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for Saturday Night Live in 2009 and 2011.
