Adele made her big return to the public eye with her Saturday Night Live Season 46 hosting gig last night. It's been a few years since Adele was last in the spotlight. Since a whirlwind 2015 (and 2016), which saw her promoting and touring her album 25 and appearing on SNL, Adele's retreated from the public eye to focus on her personal life. So, it was a big night for the Grammy-winning singer when she came back after a five-year absence from SNL.
Saturday night's episode was fairly standard as far as SNL episodes go these days. After a debate-focused cold open once again featuring Alec Baldwin as President Trump and Jim Carrey as Joe Biden, Adele came on for her monologue. It was light on jokes and she was in and out of there in a few minutes; business as usual, really. From there, Adele's episode contained a few gems, some of which we'll highlight here.
One of the best sketches centered around Adele, appearing as herself, as a contestant on ABC's The Bachelor. The titular Bachelor was played by SNL regular Beck Bennett, with fellow cast members Chloe Fineman and Heidi Gardner also turning up. The whole gag of the sketch was that Adele the Bachelor contestant kept breaking out into song and showcasing her skills through the performance of her biggest hits. If anything, it was a nice reminder that Adele is an extremely talented singer, and oh, how I have missed her all these years.
Adele also popped up in a pre-recorded sketch that was set up as an '80s music video ad for perfumed jeans that make your butt smell great. The sketch was fun, it got Adele into a ridiculous wig, and let her get silly with Maya Rudolph. It's no "Mom Jeans," but it'll do. Adele and Gardner also appeared in a sketch with Kate McKinnon, Bowen Yang, and Ngo Ewodim where four friends visited a psychic in 2019 and got harrowing and confusing predictions about 2020. The sketch failed to hit upon the weirdest aspects of this very weird year. (No murder hornets references? C'mon, SNL.) Oh, but there was a Jeffrey Toobin joke so I'll give them a point for that.
Finally, there was an absurd and somewhat problematic tourism ad for Africa featuring Adele, Gardner, and McKinnon. While the ad's great punchline was built around the (low-key problematic!) premise that Africa is a great place for single white women to restart their love lives, it ended up being a showcase for all the charming ways Adele kept breaking character. Bless.
New episodes of Saturday Night Live Season 46 air live on NBC on Saturday nights at 11/10c. Check out other highlights from Adele's hosting gig below. For more, check out our round-up of the best shows streaming on NBCUniversal streamer Peacock.
Allie Gemmill is the Weekend Contributing Editor for Collider. You can follow them on Twitter @_matineeidle.