‘Saturday Night Live’: Why Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe of ‘Outlander’ should host in season 42

We’re back with another edition today of our “Saturday Night Live” Wishlist series, and this time we’re talking about something a little bit different: The idea of co-hosts. While it’s not something that happens on a fairly regular basis, there is precedent for it. The last time that we saw two hosts was back when Tina Fey and Amy Poehler did it together back in 2015. Beyond that, the Olsen Twins famously did the show together in 2004, Roseanne and Tom Arnold hosted together back in 1992, and the fantastic comedy trio of Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, and Martin Short did it all the way back in 1986. (Does anyone remember when Mr. T and Hulk Hogan did it together? That was both odd and completely random, but the show was in a weird spot at the time.)

The idea of pitching Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe of “Outlander” together came mostly out of planning out the articles to compile this list over the next month or so, and figuring out that we wanted to have as many different shows represented as possible. Since we know that the two have a tremendous rapport and comedic chemistry together, it makes sense in our mind to have them on the show at the same time! If we didn’t advocate for this, we’d be writing separate articles hoping that they’d make cameos on each other’s shows … which is not too far from the same thing. Plus, it’s always fun to see “SNL” as a show push the envelope somewhat and do things that are slight aberrations from the norm.

Why they’d be great for the show – First and foremost, comedy. While being on a live comedy show is a very different sort of performance than taping a drama series like “Outlander” out on location, we’ve seen Balfe and Heughan have a great sense of humor in various interviews over the years. They’d be able to play off of the audience really well, and make fun of themselves whenever the situation called for it. Obviously, there would be a demand for an “Outlander” parody, but you could easily throw them into some other familiar sketches to see them in roles beyond Claire and Jamie. For example, but Balfe in a “Whiskers R We” spot with Kate McKinnon (we recently wrote about the greatness of this sketch over here), throw Sam into a “Last Call” sketch with Kate and Kenan Thompson, or maybe have the two of them together do that recurring sketch in which Kate recounts some odd supernatural experience that she had with aliens, Santa Claus, or the like.

(In case you didn’t get the memo, Kate McKinnon is the Crown Jewel of “SNL” at the moment.)

The biggest thing that you want for a host on this show is someone who’s going to embrace the process and have a tremendous time trying to entertain. With Sam and Caitriona, you get the sense this would happen in spades.

Why “SNL” should want them – For one, a little bit of international exposure is never a bad thing. Obviously, the sketch series is well-known in the United Kingdom; it’s well-known all over the world by comedy fans. Still, embracing stars with internationally followings certainly helps to raise awareness and exposure. Given the show’s current political leanings, we also think it would benefit them heavily to present an outside perspective to some of the terrifying stuff going on in the country. Everything that happens in America of course impacts other parts of the world.

Aside from the politics and the comedy, the support of the “Outlander” fandom — arguably the most-devoted following out there (just look at the People’s Choice Awards for evidence) — is the clearest reason to bring them on. The show would benefit from all of their support heavily, and even viewers who aren’t as familiar with the Starz drama will still get a chance to watch an episode that is incredibly funny and everything they’d expect from turning their TV to NBC thirty minutes to midnight.

Do you want to see Heughan and Balfe host “SNL” in the future? Share in the comments, and head over here to get our recent SNL Wishlist piece all about Bob Odenkirk of “Better Call Saul.” (Photo: NBC.)