November 7 will be an historic night for Drew Desbordes. That’s when Desbordes, whose 13.6 million Instagram followers know him as Druski, will become the first Saturday Night Live host who began his career as a social media content creator.
After rising to prominence with his viral Instagram Live broadcasts, Druski became a multi-hyphenate creator who extended his “Coulda Been” brand through entrepreneurship, original programming, and strategic partnerships. His success with branded content has shown that he possesses the chops he needs to break into the mainstream, and Lorne Michaels apparently took notice. Though SNL has not shared an official notice about the upcoming Druski gig, Variety confirmed that Desbordes will indeed host the November 7 episode of the long-running sketch series.
Druski will break new ground for social media influencers when he hosts SNL, but creators have steadily gained more spots among the not-ready-for-prime-time players as the venerable show has entered its fifth decade of existence. For more than a decade, Michaels and co. have turned to the internet when scouting talent, and that pipeline has only become more prominent in the 2020s.
Jane Wickline , for example, was an original cast member for the TikTok-based sketch crew Stapleview before becoming an SNL fan favorite. In season 52, another Stapleview OG — Grace Reiter — joined Wickline in Studio 8H. And Jeremy Culhane , who has emerged as one of SNL ‘s best impressionists, is often seen in videos produced by Dropout (which was formerly known as CollegeHumor).
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