Pete Davidson Does His Best Kenan Thompson Impression in First ‘Saturday Night Live’ Hosting Promo

It’s like he never left! Pete Davidson is squatting at 30 Rock in his first official Saturday Night Live hosting promo, offering up a quick impression of his former castmate Kenan Thompson.

Davidson is set to host the late-night sketch comedy series as it kicks off season 49 on Oct. 14, marking the show’s first new episode since the end of the writers’ strike. Ice Spice will serve as the musical guest. 

In the teaser clip, returning SNL cast members Chloe Fineman and Bowen Yang enter the empty studio and remark about how happy they are to be back. 

“Oh, it’s so good to be back,” Yang says as the co-stars swap stories about their summers. Fineman shares that she “actually met my birth mom,” while Yang says he “watched all of Suits.” 

Davidson enters from the back wearing an old T-shirt and munching on potato chips from a bag. 

“My apartment’s under construction so I’m just livin’ here,” he tells them. 

“Only cast or hosts are allowed in the studio,” Fineman informs him, to which he shrugs.

“Oh, OK. I’ll do that,” he agrees, popping another chip in his mouth. 

“Do what?” Yang clarifies. 

“The host thing. I’ll host,” Davidson agrees. 

“Pete, that’s not how it works. You can’t just say you’re hosting,” Fineman protests, prompting Davidson to raise his eyebrows and cock his head to the side with a mischievous look. 

“That was my Kenan face,” he jokes. 

Davidson left the late-night sketch series at the end of season 47 in 2022 after seven seasons as a cast member.

On Tuesday’s Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Davidson sat down with fellow SNL alum Jimmy Fallon and joked about how the last time he was on the show, it was right before he was supposed to host an episode of Saturday Night Live last season — before the WGA strike shut things down.

“It’s funny, any time I have something that I work really hard on that I’m, like, really proud of, either a national pandemic happens, and they’re like, ‘No premiere for you!’ Or then this writers’ strike happened,” Davidson joked. “So yeah, I still think it might not happen.”

Back in April, Thompson told ET how excited he was to reunite with Davidson in Studio 8H. 

“It’s like a week off for us because they know how to do the show,” Thompson told ET of having a former SNL cast member return to host the show. “We don’t have to hand walk them through every single part of it. Usually they come with ideas too, so like a quarter of the show is almost already done. It’s just a fun easy week for us.”

As for what fans can expect from the episode, Thompson teased that he and the rest of the SNL cast will “try to balance” a mix of Davidson’s past characters and new creative sketches.

“I’m a classics fan,” Thompson admitted. “I’d fill the show up with all of his old characters or whatever, but it’s also fun to explore the new.”

Saturday Night Live airs Saturday at 11:30 p.m. ET/PT on NBC and Peacock. 

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