Paul McCartney was the musical guest on the Saturday Night Live season 51 finale on May 17, 2026, marking his fifth appearance on the show. He performed “Days We Left Behind” from his upcoming album The Boys Of Dungeon Lane and followed it with the 1973 Wings favorite “Band On The Run.”
His backing band included Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, who stepped in for McCartney’s longtime drummer Abe Laboriel Jr. That casting choice gave the episode an easy comedy engine, since Smith’s well-known resemblance to former SNL cast member Will Ferrell was already begging for a joke. Ferrell happened to be the night’s host, and the show wasted no time leaning into the bit.
During the monologue, Smith walked out first pretending to be Ferrell, only for Ferrell to storm in and flip the whole thing into a backstage brawl joke. Ferrell then kicked Smith offstage and turned to the audience, where McCartney was sitting, before pulling the confused Beatle into the joke as well. The bit played like pure live-TV chaos in the best possible way.
The rest of the episode kept the pace moving. Ferrell opened the cold open as the ghost of Jeffrey Epstein, while Aziz Ansari returned as FBI director Kash Patel. In another eyebrow-raising moment, Ferrell’s Epstein character and James Austin Johnson’s Donald Trump sang a duet of Bill Withers and Grover Washington Jr.’s 1980 hit “Just The Two Of Us.”
McCartney also popped up in a sketch as Nigel, a very British mechanic in a body-shop scene. Elsewhere, Molly Shannon returned for a high-school-musical sketch that continued a cut-for-time bit from Ferrell’s last hosting appearance in 2019. On Weekend Update, Michael Che joked about the newly revealed World Cup Halftime Show lineup featuring Madonna, Shakira, and BTS, calling it something designed for everyone to dislike.
McCartney’s performance also drew praise from fellow musician Ingrid Michaelson, who posted that McCartney and his whole team were lovely. That was hardly the end of the night, either. In the post-credits segment, Ferrell returned for a performance of “Coming Up” with McCartney, set against a Cavern Club-style backdrop. After the broadcast ended, McCartney also played “Help!” and “Drive My Car,” making the finale feel less like a single TV appearance and more like a full-blown McCartney takeover.
