The SNL Season 51 finale was broadcast on Saturday, May 16, 2026 on NBC, and it was the type of season finale that people were still discussing the next day. In his sixth hosting gig, Will Ferrell returned to the SNL stage after last performing there in 2019, and he brought a level of excitement that resonated with viewers that he is one of the greatest hosts in SNL’s history.
The musical guest for the SNL Season 51 finale was Paul McCartney. This was his fifth time appearing as a musical guest on SNL. And with the combined appearance of both of them and the unexpected appearance of Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the SNL Season 51 finale became one of the most talked-about episodes of the entire season.
The beginning of the night was one of the best cold opens of the whole season, when Ferrell performed the character of the ghost of Jeffrey Epstein, who appeared in the dream sequence to his old friend Donald Trump, who was being portrayed by the usual James Austin Johnson.
Trump had just returned from China and fell asleep. Ferrell’s Epstein just floated in and told Trump not to be concerned or worried because it was just him, his best friend.
The sketch also cast Jeremy Culhane as JD Vance, along with Colin Jost as Pete Hegseth, and featured a cameo by Aziz Ansari as Kash Patel, and it had a very strong political tone from the very beginning of the show.
The monologue chaos in SNL Season 51 finale that had everyone laughing
When Ferrell stepped out for his opening monologue in the SNL Season 51 finale, things went sideways almost immediately, in the best way possible. Chad Smith came right out and played around with this host of the evening thing as a riff on the long running stupid joke that he and Ferrell look almost identical.
Ferrell asked Smith to get out of his spotlight and when everyone was thinking that was it, Paul McCartney walked out of the audience. Paul looked at Smith and told him to get back on the drums while smiling. The audience totally blew up after that.
He also worked on several other sketches in addition to being a musical guest at the SNL Season 51 finale. McCartney appeared in another sketch called “What It Feels Like to Talk to a Mechanic”, where he plays the role of Nigel (a British mechanic), along with Will Ferrell and Marcello Hernández.
This sketch featured mechanics using more and more exaggeratedly fake and made-up tech-heavy language in order to confuse their clients. The bit was hilarious overall, and McCartney performing like a professional in a full-out comedy situation was a genuine surprise.
Later throughout the show, Will Ferrell’s previous co-star, Molly Shannon, was featured in a skit, bringing yet another nostalgic element to an episode full of reunions of former stars.
Also at the same time sat Colin Jost and Michael Che on the Weekend Update segment, providing all their fans with their favorite Christmas joke-swapping session, where either one of them was writing jokes for the other, which the latter did not know about until the point the joke was read out on the show. Che had a moment where Jost very nearly shaved his hair off live on television before the bit wound down.
Paul McCartney’s three performances and how the SNL Season 51 finale ended
Music was also very important during the SNL Season 51 finale. McCartney kicked off his set with “Days We Left Behind”, which is the first single from his new album, The Boys Of Dungeon Lane, scheduled for release on May 29, 2026. After that, he played “Band On The Run.” Chad Smith played drums on both tunes.
The full-band-circle-moment parade made it quite interesting for everybody after all the chaos during the monologue of the show. This is another part of the story where, at the end of the show, after everyone was saying their goodbyes and basically hanging out on the stage at the end of the season, Will Ferrell gave a shout-out to Paul McCartney one last time.
Paul McCartney played a spontaneous encore of “Coming Up” with the cast dancing around him from the stage as they were rolling the credits and that was a song that debuted around 1980 on SNL, and it kind of closed a very long circle.
The SNL Season 51 finale aired without any official cast send-offs, so if there are any changes in the cast for Season 52, they will be confirmed over the summer. As of now, we expect Season 52 to air on NBC in the fall of 2026.
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Edited by Subho Mukhopadhyay