‘Saturday Night Live’: Taraji P. Henson of ‘Empire,’ Michael Keaton set as hosts

“Saturday Night Live” is getting a little bit of Cookie coming up in the month of April. Specifically, they are getting the woman famous for playing her on “Empire” in Taraji P. Henson. The actress, who has made this role into one of the breakout characters of the 2014-15 TV season, is going to host the April 11 edition of the late-night sketch show. Mumford & Sons will be returning to perform as the musical guest, giving the show some sort of veteran presence still.

Meanwhile, NBC also announced the host / musical guest for “SNL” the week prior. Come April 4, we will see “Birdman” star Michael Keaton return to the show as host. It has been almost 23 years since he had the honor; the last time that he did this, he was still well-known for being a different sort of hero in Batman. He has had a nice career resurgence thanks to this movie, and the new hosting gig is the icing on the cake.

As for the musical guest April 4, Carly Rae Jepsen is performing on the series for the first time. We imagine that she will have something coming up that serves as an attempt to follow up the uber-successful “Call Me Maybe.”

As a whole, we like the choices. While none of them come across as surprising, these are the sort of performers you generally want to see aboard “SNL.” They are accomplished, relevant, and they should be good at making fun of themselves. This is what you want more so than anything else.

After a hiatus, the show is returning this weekend with a gig from Dwayne Johnson featuring musical guest George Ezra. In the event that you haven’t quite seen the first promo for this yet, you can do so just by heading over here.

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