Nearly a year after ESPN aired the final episode of The Last Dance, Saturday Night Live revisited the 2020 documentary for its latest show with first-time host Keegan-Michael Key starring as Michael Jordan in a deleted scene.
The hysterical sketch is in reference to one of the series’ best scenes, which centers on Jordan’s hyper-competitiveness off the floor, as the NBA star participates in a coin toss bet with bodyguard John Michael Wozniak, who’s played by Heidi Gardner. Dennis Rodman, Charles Barkley, and Phil Jackson also showed up for the spoof, as played by Chris Redd, Kenan Thompson, and Alex Moffat respectively.
In the skit, Gardner’s Wozniak is forced into increasingly demanding bets from Jordan while they play “quarters,” and Jordan’s competitive spirit is depicted with perfect comedic timing by Key: “He won. I was happy for him. But then he did that little shrug, and I took that personally.”
Saturday’s episode marked Key’s debut as a host on SNL. “Dreams do come true,” the 50-year-old tweeted in response to SNL’s announcement earlier this month.
During his opening monologue, Key noted that he had been “a superman of this show” ever since he was a little kid growing up in Detroit. “I used to sneak downstairs to watch SNL every week,” he recalled, “and if you had told that kid that one day he would be standing here on this stage…he probably would’ve been too busy stealing your wallet to have heard what you said.”
After SNL posted the third-highest ratings of its 46th season with host Elon Musk last week, the show saw a sizeable drop in viewers this weekend.
According to Deadline, Saturday’s episode drew a 3.5 household rating in the 44 metered local markets and a 1.5 adults 18-49 rating in the 25 markets with local people meters. Those numbers are way down from the May 8 show, hosted by Musk with musical guest Miley Cyrus, which averaged a 4.7 in households and a 2.7 in adults 18-49.
