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Saturday Night Live is back with a vengeance. After having its 48th season cut short, and its 49th season premiere delayed, the iconic late-night comedy made up for lost time with its newest season premiere. Pete Davidson’s emotional opening, in which he linked this week’s tragic events in Israel to the death of his father on 9/11, will certainly be remembered for a long time to come—as will the surprise cameos made (separately) by Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce.
First up was Travis: the two-time Super Bowl champ, and Swift’s rumored beau, crashed a sketch poking fun at the NFL’s new obsession with the “Bad Blood” singer. Kenan Thompson led the festivities as Fox NFL anchor Curt Menefee, who is desperately trying to steer the conversation back to sports while his co-anchors—Howie Long (Mikey Day), Terry Bradshaw (Molly Kearney), Jimmy Johnson (James Austin Johnson), and Michael Strahan (Devon Walker)—only want to talk about Swift.
“It’s week 7, and if any Taylor Swift fans are watching, the Chiefs game was on Thursday—you just missed her,” Thompson’s Menefee explained. While it was ostensibly a pre-game show ahead of a match between the Philadelphia Eagles and the New York Jets (read: not the Kansas City Chiefs, Kelce’s team), that didn’t stop sideline reporter Kenny Ditullio (Davidson, in full Swiftie uniform) from making it all about Taylor.