Sheeran is headed to New York to perform on Saturday's episode, after quarantining at home following his COVID-19 diagnosis.
Saturday Night Live just released the official promos for this week's episode, hosted by Kieran Culkin, but one member of Saturday night's lineup was noticeably missing. Musical guest, Ed Sheeran, was nowhere to be seen in the promo, which traditionally features both the host and musical guest.
"The Bad Habits" singer was mentioned in the video though. In the first promo, Culkin was joined by SNL cast members, Heidi Gardner and Chris Redd, who pointed out the similarities between Kieran and Sheeran's names.
"If you and Ed were driving a car and staring at people, it would be Kieran and Sheeran, steerin' and leerin,'" Gardner points out.
"Or if you and Ed were drinking brews and listening to something, it would be Kieran and Sheeran, beerin' and hearin,'" Redd offers.
"Yes, and if we got married, I would be Kieran Sheeran," Culkin adds, to the excitement of his SNL counterparts.
Sheeran's fate as this week's musical guest was momentarily up in the air after he revealed that he had tested positive for COVID-19 last month. At the time, Sheeran said that would do all the "planned interviews/performances" he could from home.
"Hey guys. Quick note to tell you that I’ve sadly tested positive for Covid, so I’m now self-isolating and following government guidelines," he shared. "It means that I’m now unable to plough ahead with any in person commitments for now, so I’ll be doing as many of my planned interviews/performances I can from my house. Apologies to anyone I’ve let down. Be safe everyone x."
ET later learned that SNL was, "figuring it out," planning to have Sheeran perform from home or even exploring the option of booking a new musical guest, if the 30-year-old singer wasn't well enough to make it in time for the sketch comedy show's Nov. 6 episode.
And figure it out they did. In a new, virtual interview on The Today Show Thursday, Sheeran shared that he had been released from his COVID quarantine and was headed to New York for this SNL gig.
"I'm all right," Sheeran told Savannah Guthrie and Carson Daly during a video call from London. "I'm sorry, I meant to be there in person today, but obviously I had to quarantine and everything. I got out, and I got tested for five days, and all's good."
SNL airs live, coast-to-coast, at 11:30 p.m. ET, 8:30 p.m. PT on NBC.
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