Who is the Saturday Night Live host and musical guest for tonight (December 20, 2025)?

As the holiday season approaches, Saturday Night Live returns with a festive Christmas special on December 20, 2025.

The episode features Ariana Grande as host and Cher as the musical guest, marking the final new installment of the first half of Season 51.

Grande makes her third appearance as host, having previously performed in both hosting and musical guest roles.

Cher returns for only her second SNL musical guest appearance since 1987. The show will air live on NBC at 11:30 p.m. ET / 10:30 p.m. CT and will be available to stream the next day on Peacock.

Meet tonight's host and musical guest on Saturday Night Live

Ariana Grande: Tonight's host
The singer and actress Ariana Grande, who is famous for her Grammy-winning music career, will be back as the host of SNL.

This will be her third time hosting and the fifth overall appearance on the show.

Grande has been the musical guest in 2014 and 2024 before and in 2016 she did both hosting and being a musical guest.

She was in Season 50 in October 2024 while the shows were going on and her hosting featured sketches and collaborations with Bowen Yang, Sarah Sherman, and Maya Rudolph.

Grande’s reappearance for the Christmas episode is a continuation of her long-standing bond with SNL.

Ariana Grande-Butera, commonly termed Ariana, is a talented artist who was born on June 26, 1993, in Boca Raton, Florida, and made her first appearance in the performing arts when she was only a child by taking part in local theater productions.

She was cast as Cat Valentine in Nickelodeon's Victorious and its spinoff Sam & Cat and became famous through this role.

Going from acting to singing, Ariana released her first album Yours Truly in 2013, which reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 charts.

Her albums, My Everything, Dangerous Woman, Sweetener, Thank U, Next, and Eternal Sunshine, have been also prolific with several No. 1 songs and have won her two Grammy Awards.

Moreover, besides music, Grande also plays Glinda in the Wicked movie series and has been nominated for both Academy and Golden Globe Awards for her roles.

Cher: Musical guest

The legend of music and acting, Cher, is the musical guest for tonight’s show. It is her second time on SNL as a musical guest after her 1987 performance that was during Season 13.

Cher who has had a long career that lasted for decades has produced twenty-seven studio albums, the most recent one being Christmas in 2023, which has a holiday theme.

She has also made an appearance on Weekend Update in 1992 and performed during the SNL50 Homecoming Concert, which was one of the highlights of her career.

Tonight's performance will feature a mixture of her timeless classics and the songs from her holiday album as well.

Cherilyn Sarkisian, born on May 20, 1946, in El Centro, California, became famous along with her husband Sonny Bono as the pop duo Sonny and Cher.

Their joint single I Got You Babe along with their variety program The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour were the main reasons that they became popular throughout the country.

Along with other successful singers, Cher had hits like Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves, Half-Breed, and the worldwide club anthem Believe, for which she received a Grammy award in the year 2000.

Besides, she also acted and garnered an Oscar for Moonstruck and several nominations for her performances by the Golden Globes.

The year 2023 was not only a milestone for Cher in the movies but also in music as the singer finally released her latest album Christmas.

How to watch tonight's episode

The Christmas special goes live on NBC at 11:30 p.m. ET/10:30 p.m. CT, plus next day streaming on Peacock.

In addition, the streaming service Peacock features not only the current but also the older SNL episodes and sketches where Grande, Cher, and other stars performed making it easy for the viewers to catch up with the past SNL performances.

Stay tuned for more updates.