Sabrina Carpenter‘s Saturday Night Live hosting debut kicked off with a fun callback to none other than the viral Domingo skit — with a modern pop twist.
The “Manchild” singer returned to the late night show on Saturday, where she doubled up as the night’s host and musical guest. The cold open kicked off with another homecoming of Chloe Fineman‘s Kelsey character and her group of best friends, including Carpenter.
True to the original skit, Kelsey’s girl squad recounted their Nashville night out in front of her husband Matt (Andrew Dismukes) in full song form, set to the tune of some of the most popular modern tracks. They recalled their festivities by singing along to the backtrack of Taylor Swift’s “The Fate of Ophelia” and Lady Gaga’s “Abracadabra,” before Marcello Hernández‘s beloved Domingo character made his grand entrance (and return) to profess his love to Fineman’s Kelsey, set to Alex Warren’s track “Ordinary.”
The original Domingo skit instantly went viral, originally featuring Carpenter’s “Espresso” as Kelsey’s bridesmaids confessed that she had cheated on her husband-to-be with Domingo. The Grammy winner wasn’t actually featured in the original bit, though fellow pop star Ariana Grande was. (Carpenter did star in the SNL 50 Domingo sequel, though.)
Later in Carpenter’s opening monologue, she lightly addressed the controversy surrounding the cover art for her latest album, Man’s Best Friend. Pointing back to her last appearance on the show during SNL 50, she noted that “since then, my new album Man’s Best Friend came out, which I’m so excited about. But some people got a little freaked out by the cover.”
“I’m not sure why. It was just this: me on all fours with an unseen figure pulling my hair. But what people don’t realize is, that’s just how they cropped it. If you zoom out, it’s clearly a picture from the 50th anniversary special of Bowen helping me up by the hair,” she said, as the shot of the album cover zoomed out, continuing, “After Martin Short shoved me out of the buffet line.”
The “Bed Chem” singer used the rest of her monologue to “clear up some misconceptions people have about me,” joking that “everyone thinks of me as this horndog pop star, but there’s really so much more to me.”
“I’m not just horny, I’m also turned on, and I’m sexually charged. And I love to read. My favorite book is the encyclopedia. It’s so big and it’s hard…” she said, before continuing, “There is a real person underneath all the sparkles and the wigs and the corsets, and another thing you might not know about me is that I love to interact with the audience during my show, so I’d like to do that right now.”
She went on to touch base with a few audience members before returning to the stage, where she continued another one of her concert traditions: “The last fun thing I like to do at my concerts is arrest someone for being hot. So, who here can I arrest tonight?”
Kenan Thompson then hit the stage, where he joked that he was arresting the singer “for falsely impersonating an officer 200 times at your concerts. And you’re arresting innocent hot people.”
Saturday night marked Carpenter’s first SNL hosting gig, while it was the second time she served as the night’s musical guest. She, too, notably performed a rendition of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Homeward Bound” alongside Paul Simon at the 50th anniversary special.
Ahead of the show, Bowen Yang took to his Instagram Stories to note that he was missing the taping. The Wicked star skipped episode three to attend the 2025 Academy Museum Gala, where he was honored with the Vantage Award.
The “Espresso” singer served as the third overall host of season 51, following in the footsteps of Bad Bunny and Amy Poehler. Earlier this week, the next wave of SNL guests were announced. Miles Teller will host on Nov. 1, while Nikki Glaser and Glen Powell are set to make their hosting debuts on the Nov. 8 and Nov. 15 shows, respectively.
Last Saturday’s show was full of star-studded cameos, as former cast member Poehler brought back fellow SNL alumni Tina Fey and Seth Meyers throughout the episode. Fey also made a cameo to impersonate Kristi Noem in the cold open, while Poehler portrayed Pam Bondi.
