Remember when Travis Kelce hosted SNL? We now know which cast member worked for years to make it happen

All the buzz around Travis Kelce now is for his romance with Taylor Swift, but rewind to 2023, and it was his Saturday Night Live hosting debut that had everyone talking—and now we know the mastermind behind it.

Season 48 of SNL featured several impressive hosts, but Travis Kelce’s hot jock humor knocked everyone out of the competition for the best host of the season. However, it wasn’t an easy job to convince the football maestro to make his hosting debut—in fact, it took years of convincing. In a recent episode of the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast, SNL cast member Heidi Gardner revealed the struggle it took to get Kelce on the show.

“[It was] the biggest swing I ever did in that department, and it did work, but it took a couple of years,” Gardner said. (via Variety) Though she was humble about it, so as to not “take full credit from the show and the talent department,” Gardner’s inner Chief’s fangirl soul kept her dedicated to pursuing Kelce. But there was another hurdle—the executive producer and creator Lorne Michaels would only agree to her plan on one condition: Kelce had to win the Super Bowl first.

At first, Gardner was worried, thinking “That is so much pressure to ask.” But would you guess it—Kelce ended up winning the Super Bowl 2023 and even began his monologue on the show by humbly bragging about the win. Part of the reason behind his bragging was to poke fun at his brother and Philadelphia Eagles opponent, Jason Kelce, sitting in the audience, but who would miss the chance to flaunt their wins anyway?

And it wasn’t just us fans excited to see Kelce work his charm on stage, the entire Kelce family paid Studio 8H a visit for his hosting debut. Gardner also revealed that “[Kelce is] the only host in SNL history that’s ever tailgated before hosting the show.” She recalled how before his show on March 4, she opened her phone to a picture of Travis and Jason eating a barbecue in her dressing room. The pre-show celebration undoubtedly helped him because the studio was brimming with laughter by the end of the night.

However, we would have never gotten to see this side of Kelce if it wasn’t for Gardner’s spidey senses that caught on Kelce’s natural humor early on. “I had seen him do like other little acting gigs and appearances, and I was like, ‘He’s funny, he’s charming,'” she recalled. But this gig did wonders for Kelce’s television career. He soon went on to star in the FX show Grotesquerie and will also be seen in the upcoming Netflix sports comedy Happy Gilmore 2 in 2025.