Saturday Night Live is back with a vengeance. After having its 48th season cut short, and its 49th season premiere delayed, the late-night comedy made up for lost time with its newest season premiere. Pete Davidson’s emotional opening, in which he linked this week’s tragic events in Israel to the death of his father on 9/11, will certainly be remembered for a long time—as will the surprise cameos made (separately) by Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce.
First up was Travis: the two-time Super Bowl champ, and Swift’s rumored beau, crashed a sketch poking fun at the NFL’s new obsession with the “Bad Blood” singer. Kenan Thompson led the festivities as Fox NFL anchor Curt Menefee, who is desperately trying to steer the conversation back to sports while his co-anchors—Howie Long (Mikey Day), Terry Bradshaw (Molly Kearney), Jimmy Johnson (James Austin Johnson), and Michael Strahan (Devon Walker)—only want to talk about Swift.
“It’s week 7, and if any Taylor Swift fans are watching, the Chiefs game was on Thursday—you just missed her,” Thompson’s Menefee explained. While it was ostensibly a pre-game show ahead of a match between the Philadelphia Eagles and the New York Jets (read: not the Kansas City Chiefs, Kelce’s team), that didn’t stop sideline reporter Kenny Ditullio (Davidson, in full Swiftie uniform) from making it all about Taylor.
“There was a rumor online she was coming to cheer on Travis’ brother Jason,” he said. “But so far, no sign of Blondie. I’m starting to wonder why I’m even here.”
Finally Menefee gave up and promises that when they come back from a commercial break, “we are going to speak to someone who actually wants to talk football,” which is where Kelce popped up and agreed “Yes, please!” Which seemed like the next best thing to a Swift and seemingly Ranch sighting—until she, too, showed up. In person.
Swift, clearly knowing she was blowing the audience’s mind, very quietly introduced musical guest Ice Spice ahead of her second performance. Earlier this year, the two worked together on a remix of “Karma” and, in late May, joined Taylor for a handful of performances on her Eras Tour.
