Elon Musk Generating Buzz Ahead Of Hosting 'SNL,' Episode Could Have Big Ratings

Elon Musk has been tapped to host the May 8 episode of “Saturday Night Live” with musical guest Miley Cyrus. Although the NBC sketch show has seen unsteady ratings over the last few weeks, the Tesla CEO could pull in a sizable number of viewers from the buzz surrounding his upcoming hosting gig.

On Saturday, Musk caught the attention of fans by posting tweets about his sketch ideas for the upcoming episode, including a “Woke James Bond” skit. Musk has 52.5 million followers on Twitter.

“Irony Man – defeats villains using the power of irony,” Musk suggested in one tweet.

In another post, he wrote, “Baby Shark & Shark Tank merge to form Baby Shark Tank.”

Musk, who is the second-richest person in the world, has shared several tweets about the show, which appeared to irk cast members like Aidy Bryant, Bowen Yang, and Andrew Dismukes, who all took to social media and appeared to shade the business magnate.

While Bryant appeared to take a dig at Musk’s position as part of the 1%, Yang appeared annoyed with Musk’s comments about the show. Meanwhile, Dismukes, who is a featured cast member, hinted he had no plans to appear in a sketch with Musk.

“Only CEO I wanna do sketch with is Cher-E Oteri,” Dismukes wrote on his Instagram story, referencing Cheri Oteri, a former “SNL” cast member.

"Saturday Night Live" has seen uneven ratings this season. The March 27 episode featuring host Maya Rudolph, a former longtime cast member, and musical guest Jack Harlow, garnered a 1.5 rating with adults 18 to 49 rating in the 25 markets with local people meters. It also earned a 3.6 household Live+Same Day rating in the 44 metered local markets.

Ratings rose slightly the following week during the April 3 episode with Daniel Kaluuya as the host and St. Vincent as the musical guest. The episode earned a 3.6 household Live+Same Day rating and was up with a 1.7 rating with adults ages 18 to 49.

However, ratings slipped the following week when Carey Mulligan hosted the show on April 10 with Kid Cudi as a musical guest. The episode dropped to a 1.5 rating with adults 18 to 49 while the 3.6 household Live+Same Day rating remained the same.

Due to the controversy surrounding Musk and the dissatisfaction from cast members, "SNL" could see a ratings bump.

There is a long history of controversial "SNL" hosts sparking outrage and therefore interest in an upcoming episode. In 1990, cast member Nora Dunn and musical guest Sinead O'Connor boycotted an episode hosted by standup comedian Andrew Dice Clay due to his misogynistic and homophobic comments. The episode saw its highest ratings of the season.