Travis Kelce as SNL Host

Heidi Gardner Took “a couple years” to get Travis Kelce as host for “Saturday Night Live.” She calls it “the biggest swing I ever did.”

Travis Kelce hosted “Saturday Night Live” in March 2023. Now, “SNL” cast member Heidi Gardner is giving the behind-the-scenes details on how she got him to host in the first place.

On an episode of the “Not Skinny But Not Fat” podcast, Gardner said that “the biggest swing I ever did in that department, and it did work, but it took a couple years, was Travis Kelce. 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.’”

The two presented a category together at the 2023 ESPY Awards. After years of Gardner pushing for Kelce to host “SNL,” executive producer and creator Lorne Michaels gave in on one condition: Kelce had to win the Super Bowl first.

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“I was like, ‘That is so much pressure to ask.’ And then he won the Super Bowl,” Gardner recalled. In fact, Kelce was 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 see the show. She didn’t think that the Kelces would have time to join Gardner for tailgating – until she got a text.

Gardner recalls how she opened her phone “to a picture of Travis and Jason Kelce in my dressing room eating barbecue … [Kelce is] the only host in ‘SNL’ history that’s ever tailgated before hosting the show.”

Many music fans have grown to associate Kelce with Taylor Swift, although they started publicly dating six months after Kelce hosted “SNL.” Since his gig on “SNL,” Kelce starred in the FX show “Grotesquerie” and is set to appear in “Happy Gilmore 2,” releasing on Netflix in 2025.

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FEATURE PHOT CAPTION, TOP: NEW YORK, NEW YORK – DECEMBER 16: Ego Nwodim, Heidi Gardner and Mikey Day speak during SAG-AFTRA Foundation Conversations presents “Saturday Night Live” at the SAG-AFTRA Foundation Robin Williams Center on December 16, 2024 in New York City. CREDIT: Photo by John Lamparski/Getty Images.

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