<P> Saturday Night Live (abbreviated as SNL) is a late - night sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels . It premiered on NBC, a terrestrial television network, on October 11, 1975 under the title NBC's Saturday Night . The show usually satirizes contemporary American popular culture and politics . Saturday Night Live features a two - tiered cast: the repertory members, also known as the "Not Ready for Prime - Time Players", and newer cast members, known as "Featured Players ." </P> <P> A typical episode of SNL will feature a single host, who delivers the opening monologue and performs in sketches with the cast . While the format also features a musical guest, and a number of episodes have featured celebrity cameos, the focus of the show is the guest host . </P> <P> George Carlin was first to host the show; Candice Bergen was the first woman to host the show a few weeks later and again hosted only six weeks after that . Guests that host five times (or more) are members of the Five - Timers Club that originated on December 8, 1990, when Tom Hanks became the seventh person to host their fifth episode . Occasionally, a host will also be the musical guest, such as first seen with Paul Simon on October 18, 1975, and, most recently, Donald Glover in 2018 . </P> <P> Saturday Night Live has featured a wide array of hosts and musical guests . George Carlin served as the show's first host in October 1975; three episodes later, Candice Bergen became the first female host and the first to host more than once . Actor Alec Baldwin holds the record for most times hosting, having performed the duty on seventeen different occasions since 1990; Baldwin took the record from actor Steve Martin who has hosted fifteen times since 1976 . </P>

Who was the first musical host of saturday night live