NBC’s Saturday Night Live has been a cultural institution for more than half of a century now, and it shows no signs of stopping. Lorne Michaels’ show has nearly cornered the market on variety television at this point, utilizing the same form and structure today that it did back in 1975. There’s the mainstay cast of ‘not ready for primetime players,’ a weekly musical guest, and an attention-grabbing host.
The host changes from week to week, often resulting in a high-profile celebrity who is in the midst of promoting a new project stopping in at a pivotal moment in their career. This used to be a high-energy and goofy contrast to the rest of the publicity and press surrounding a film, but in the years since SNL’s debut, many press materials have evolved to be similarly goofy outings, ala Hot Ones, Chicken Shop Date, or any of their numerous lesser derivatives. But this Halloween, SNL is busting out what is sure to be a highly watched and immediately iconic episode one way or another, as Inde Navarrette is set to host.
Navarrette is obviously still very much riding the wave of acclaim and success that has followed her ever since the release of Curry Barker’s Obsession. Though the horror film released in early May of this year, it has never really left the cultural conversation, as it has continued to be a topic of much discourse. Furthermore, Focus Features recently revealed extensive plans to campaign for pretty much every possible Academy Award for the film, and Navarrette is very much at the front of that charge.
In this way, positioning her as the host of the Halloween episode on Saturday Night Live is a synchronistic decision that benefits all parties involved. Obsession was a Blumhouse release, which, of course, is a subsidiary of Universal Studios, which is ultimately owned by Comcast. Comcast also owns NBC and thus Saturday Night Live. Thus, by putting Navarrette on Saturday Night Live at the most befitting and spooky time of year, Universal is able to benefit in every conceivable way, bringing Obsession audiences to SNL and SNL audiences to Obsession.
In the long term, I also think that SNL stands a chance of really benefitting Navarrette’s longevity. She has recently been cast in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s new X-Men film but has also been receiving a bit of an online backlash, mostly just for being over-exposed. But on SNL, she has the chance to engage with these kinds of conversations directly while also showing off various sides of herself as a performer. Obsession and all of the press surrounding it have already done a stellar job of showcasing the sheer quantity of her range, and SNL’s Halloween episode should be a perfect stomping ground for her to demonstrate this to the world at large.
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