Sabrina Carpenter was the host and musical guest on last night’s (October 18) episode of Saturday evening livewhere she performed songs from her new album Man’s Best Friend. Dressed SNL– on the theme of underwear, Carpenter sang the single “Manchild” in a hairbrush; she later donned a gi and did karate for the album track “Nobody’s Son”. Carpenter also performed in skits throughout the evening as a podcast host for a 12-year-old boy, a motivational speaker who suffers from a head injury, and a singing washing machine.
In his opening monologue, Carpenter addressed the controversy surrounding the Man’s Best Friend album cover. “What people don’t realize is how they reframed it,” she joked. “If you zoom out, it’s clearly an image of the (Saturday evening live) 50th anniversary special of Bowen (Yang) helping me up by my hair after Martin Short pushed me out of the buffet line, saying something like “Daddy needs his mini quiche.” Carpenter also discussed her brand of “popstar horndog” – “I’m not just horny, I’m also horny and sexually charged” – did sexually charged crowd work and was nearly arrested by Keenan Thompson. Full speech and performance, plus she SNL promotional video with actor Marcello Hernandez, below.
Last night was Carpenter’s third appearance on Saturday evening live-fourth if you count her appearance in this year’s Quinta Brunson-hosted episode. She first stopped by Studio 8H as a musical guest on the heels of her 2024 album Short and sweetand was part of SNL50: the anniversary specialwhere she performed a duet of the Simon & Garfunkel song “Homeward Bound” alongside Paul Simon. On Thursday, Carpenter will kick off a series of North American arena shows, with stops in Pittsburgh, New York, Nashville, Toronto and Los Angeles.
Season 51 of Saturday evening live premiered on October 4. The start of the season was hosted by Bad Bunny, with Doja Cat as musical guest. After taking this week off, SNLThe next three episodes are set to feature Miles Teller and Brandi Carlile, Nikki Glaser and Sombr, as well as Glen Powell and Olivia Dean, respectively.
Discover “Manchild” in “20 contenders for the song of summer 2025”.
