‘Saturday Night Live’ preview: What to expect from Tom Hanks, Lady Gaga

Tonight, we’re moving into relatively uncharted waters: The fourth straight week of there being a new episode of “Saturday Night Live” on the air. Sure, we know that this has happened before, but it’s not something in this present era that is relatively common. Granted, there is a perfectly good reason for getting it now: Trying to get more mileage out of the Presidential Debates.

For those who are wondering, NBC has basically confirmed at this point that there will be another Presidential Debate cold open tonight, with Alec Baldwin returning as Donald Trump. We have to assume that the words “bad hombre” and “nasty woman” are going to be uttered in here at some point, in addition to a wide array of other ridiculousness. This is the last chance for the show to really milk this format, given that there are no more debates until the election and it is actually only two weeks away from happening at this point. (Yes, the prospect of this is in many ways rather odd, since it feels like this election has been going on for the entirety of our life.

The promos below, meanwhile, hype up Tom Hanks returning to host for the first in a good decade, and Lady Gaga is serving as the musical guest. While neither clip is necessarily hilarious, these studio promos rarely are at this point. We do know that in terms of star power, this is easily the best host / performer combo of the season. Tom is definitely funny, and we’d be shocked if Gaga does not make a cameo somewhere in the show.

Hopefully, tonight’s episode will offer up a little more information regarding who will be hosting the show next. We know there’s a repeat next week, but will NBC try to fit one more show in before the election? It makes sense to try with ratings in mind, but the cast may need time to recharge the batteries.

Let us know what you want to see in tonight’s show in the comments! Also, click here to get some other promos for this episode now. (Photo: NBC.)