Maybe Morgan Wallen didn’t have the best time on Saturday Night Live after all. According to Page Six, Wallen was supposed to perform in a sketch on Saturday Night Live this past weekend when he appeared as a musical guest but opted out, causing Joe Jonas to replace him at the eleventh hour.
Per Page Six, the sketch, called “Big Dumb Line,” featured host Mikey Madison and SNL cast members including Bowen Yang, Chloe Fineman, Sarah Sherman, and Ego Nwodim singing a song about how silly it is to wait in lines in New York City. An inside source reportedly told Page Six that Wallen was asked to appear in the sketch but declined, leaving the powers that be at SNL in a lurch. Pop star and actor Joe Jonas was reportedly called in “at the last minute” to appear in the pretaped sketch. In the sketch, Jonas urged cast members to “believe in yourself” and “believe in the line,” and the cast joined in on the chorus, “Wait in a big, fat line.”
The insider reportedly told Page Six that Wallen was “not super friendly” on set. “They had hopes he would do the pretape and perhaps more, but no joy,” said the source. Wallen did not appear in any sketches over the course of the night.
Rumors swirled that Wallen did not absolutely love being part of the team after he abruptly walked off set during bows after hugging Madison instead of staying onstage and congratulating the cast and crew, which is customary of an SNL musical guest. Wallen intensified rumors of dissatisfaction when he posted a photo of his private jet and the caption “Get me to God’s country” on his Instagram Stories shortly after leaving the late-night sketch show.
But according to a source who spoke to Variety, Wallen’s sudden exit from Studio 8H was a mistake, and Wallen was not referring to any negative experience at SNL in his Instagram post. A source told TMZ that Wallen had entered and exited the same way during blocking and rehearsal, and claimed that Wallen walked that way out of habit.
Blocking issue or not, Wallen’s abrupt exit raised some eyebrows within the SNL cast. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Kenan Thompson described the country singer’s exit as “so abrupt” and “a spike in the norm.” “I don’t know what goes through people’s minds when they decide to do stuff like that,” he told EW. “I don’t know if [Wallen] understood the assignment or not, or if he was really feeling a certain kind of way.” Thompson also addressed Wallen’s “Get me back to God’s country” Instagram post. “You trying to say that we are not in God’s country?” said SNL’s longest-serving cast member. “We’re not all in God’s country? We’re not all under God’s umbrella? That’s not necessarily my favorite.”
Vanity Fair reached out to representatives for Morgan Wallen and Saturday Night Live for comment.
