14 time gold medal winning United States Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps has been tabbed as the host of the season premiere of Saturday Night Live’s 34th season. (link) Phelps, who recently won eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, is the latest in a long line of the world’s greatest athletes to host NBC’s legendary sketch comedy show. Previous athletes to have hosted SNL include Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, LeBron James, Tom Brady, Lance Armstrong and best of all, Peyton Manning.
Joining Phelps on Saturday Night Live’s season premier as the show’s musical guest will be hip-hop superstar Lil’ Wayne. (link) This will be the rapper’s first appearance on Saturday Night Live and it could not have come at a better time. This year has seen Lil’ Wayne finally achieve the type of mainstream success many hip-hop fans knew he was destined for. It is nice to see Weezy finally be recognized as one of, if not the, best hip-hop artists of his generation. His latest album, 2008’s Tha Carter III, “sold over 1 million copies in its first week of release, a feat not achieved since 2005.” (link)Be sure to tune in to see both Phelps and Lil’ Wayne on the 2008 season premiere of Saturday Night Live on September 13, 2008 at 11:30/10:30c, and as always, only on NBC.