Live From New York It's...Michael Phelps!

NBC has just announced that Olympic super swimming sensation Michael Phelps will be hosting the season premiere of Saturday Night Live on September 13th, with musical guest Lil' Wayne. Lil' Bow Wow, Lil' Romeo, and Lil' Caesar were all booked, so they went out and got the next "Lil'" guy on the list. In recent years the show has taken a dive, so most likely people will not be watching when this tattoo-faced purveyor of the English language takes the stage. It will be interesting to see Phelps on the show as he is the first Olympian since Nancy Kerrigan in 1994 to host SNL.
My personal favorite of all the athlete hosts on SNL has been WWF star Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson; that is, if he counts as an athlete, which there's definitely room for a dispute on. His somewhat theatrical day job at the WWF was sure to lend a hand in his onstage charisma. One of the funniest skits I can remember from that episode was when he was dressed in drag as an undercover cop who had become the girlfriend of the Ladies Man, played brilliantly by Tim Meadows (still one of the best SNL characters ever).

Below is a list of all the athletes/people associated with sports (George Steinbrenner- Owner of the New York Yankees, Carl Weathers- Apollo Creed in the "Rocky" films, and Mr. T- Clubber Lang in "Rocky III") I wish I could have seen the Billy Martin episode, I'm sure they touched on him getting fired 20 times by Steinbrenner. The ones I remember from my younger days were Wayne Gretzky, Michael Jordan (his skit with Stuart Smalley is a classic), Charles Barkley, George Foreman, Deion Sanders, The Rock, Derek Jeter, and more recently Peyton Manning and Lebron James.

For the most part, when athletes host Saturday Night Live, they remind us that they don't make their money acting. However, the show is a staple in pop culture, and athletes are a part of that pantheon. I'm sure Michael Phelps will get a few laughs, if not Lil' Wayne's music may. I think the show has been lacking substance and has come off as very stale and tired the last 3 or 4 years.

The show always has dark ages like this though, so hopefully it comes out of this as it always has, wiping the slate clean, with the exception of a couple gems in the cast. I haven't seen too much of Bill Hader on the show, but he was hilarious as the cop in "Superbad," and I wish he was featured more in "Tropic Thunder" as Les Grossman's assistant, so he can stay. Darrell Hammond, who has been on the show forever, will always get laughs for his spot on impersonations of Sean Connery and Bill Clinton, so he can stay for another 13 years if he likes. The guy from Keenan and Kel who played Fat Albert in the film, he's got to go. He's about as funny as watching grass grow in the middle of winter in Minnesota. Seth Meyers and the guy from the "Hot Rod" movie, they've got to go. Amy Poehler should stay, though I hear she's ditching the show in November. Tina Fey is gone, Tracy Morgan is gone, Jimmy Fallon laughing through every skit he's in is gone, and Horatio Sanz is gone. These were the lone bright spots in the show, and now it's like the lights are out and they keep the show going and going and going.

I would have liked to include clips of each of these hosts in all of their horrible acting glory, but unfortunately, the NBC honchos have had every single clip from SNL removed from YouTube, even all the musical performances. I could get into that, but will save it for another time.

What I notice most about the list is not who is on it, but who is not on it. Mainly some modern greats who, personality-wise, seem like they would be suited for the show such as: Tiger Woods, John McEnroe, Venus and/or Serena Williams, Kobe Bryant, Tony Romo, Terrell Owens, Tony Hawk, and Alex Rodriguez.

Athletes on SNL: OJ Simpson- 1978, John Madden- 1982, Mr. T. & Hulk Hogan- 1985, Billy Martin- 1986, Carl Weathers- 1988, Wayne Gretzky- 1989, George Steinbrenner- 1990, Michael Jordan- 1991, Charles Barkley- 1993, Nancy Kerrigan- 1994, George Foreman- 1994, Deion Sanders- 1995, The Rock- 2000 & 2002, Derek Jeter- 2001, Jeff Gordon- 2003, Andy Roddick-2003, Tom Brady- 2005, Peyton Manning- 2007, Lebron James- 2007