It took Heidi Gardner “a few years” to get Travis Kelce to host “SNL.”
Travis Kelce hosted ‘Saturday Night Live’ in March 2023. Now, ‘SNL’ cast member Heidi Gardner is giving behind-the-scenes details on how she got him as host in the first place.
In an episode of the Podcast ‘Not skinny but not fat’Gardner said that “the biggest swing I ever did in that department, and it worked, but it took a few years, was Travis Kelce. I don’t want to take full credit for the show and the talent department, but I’m just, obviously, a big Chiefs fan, and I had seen him do other little acting gigs and appearances, and I thought, ‘He’s funny, he’s charming. ”
The two co-hosted a category at the 2023 ESPY Awards. After years of Gardner pushing for Kelce to host “SNL,” executive producer and creator Lorne Michaels relented on one condition: Kelce had to win the Super Bowl first.
“I thought, ‘That’s so much pressure to ask.’ And then he won the Super Bowl,” Gardner recalled. Kelce was even part of the winning Kansas City Chiefs teams in 2020, 2023 and 2024.
Gardner described how many of Kelce’s friends and family came to watch the show. She didn’t think the Kelces would have time to tailgate with Gardner – until she got a text.
Gardner remembers opening her phone “and seeing a picture of Travis and Jason Kelce in my dressing room eating barbecue… [Kelce is] the only host in ‘SNL’ history to ever grow a ponytail before hosting the show.
Many music fans have come to associate Kelce with Taylor Swift, although they began dating publicly six months after Kelce hosted “SNL.” Since his appearance on “SNL,” Kelce has starred in the FX show “Grotesquerie” and will appear in “Happy Gilmore 2,” which hits Netflix in 2025.
