Saturday Night Live cast member Heidi Gardner is a die-hard Chiefs fan, and she worked for years to get Travis Kelce on the show. In a recent interview on the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast, Gardner explained that executive producer Lorne Michaels had a pretty important condition before he would let Kelce host.
“The biggest swing I ever did in that department, and it did work, but it took a couple years, was Travis Kelce,” Gardner explained. “I don’t want to take full credit from the show and the talent department, but I’m just, obviously a big Chiefs fan, and I had seen him do like other little acting gigs and appearances, and I was like, ‘He’s funny, he’s charming.’ I had done the ESPYs with him, announcing something together.”
After years of continued pressure on the casting department, Gardner said that Lorne made himself clear. “Lorne was like, ‘Well, he has to win the Super Bowl.’ I was like, ‘That is so much pressure to ask!’ And then he won the Super Bowl!” she explained.
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Gardner also explained that her campaign to get Kelce on the show was “pre-Taylor,” meaning it was before he was publicly dating Taylor Swift. That relationship made an entire new audience aware of the Kansas City Chiefs tight end, but he hosted the show in March of 2023, months before the two started dating in September of that year.
“All my family came in for the show, all my friends. I got barbecue. We tailgated in the dressing room before the show,” the comedian said. She also added that Kelce joined her family for the tailgate, making him quite possibly the “only host in SNL history that’s ever tailgated before hosting the show.”