![\"Reese](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IWF2QTRLOJHZ5OD53LGTBQXDO4.jpg\"\/)
Reese Witherspoon attends “The Morning Show” Season 4 New York Premiere at Museum of Modern Art on September 09, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy\/Getty Images)Getty Images<\/p>\nReese Witherspoon attends “The Morning Show” Season 4 New York Premiere at Museum of Modern Art on September 09, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy\/Getty Images)Getty Images<\/p>\n
Reese Witherspoon<\/a> is setting the record straight on why she\u2019s only hosted \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d<\/a> twice in her career. <\/p>\n During a Nov. 3 episode of Dax Shepard\u2019s \u201cArmchair Expert\u201d podcast, \u201cThe Morning Show\u201d star spoke candidly about her first time at Studio 8H and why it prompted her to steer clear of the show for 15 years.<\/p>\n Witherspoon made her \u201cSNL\u201d hosting debut on Sept. 29, 2001, just weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York City.<\/p>\n \u201cI would give that zero stars. Do not recommend,\u201d she told Shepard of the timing.\u201cIt was just too much responsibility for a 24-year-old girl.\u201d<\/p>\n Witherspoon continued: \u201cLorne Michaels called me and he said, \u2018I really need you to show up. I really, really need this. Rudy Giuliani\u2019s gonna be here. All the firefighters are gonna be here. Paul Simon is gonna sing. I just need you to come out and do something a little light and tell America \u2014 you can\u2019t feel \u2014 we gotta laugh again. We\u2019ve got to get back the national spirit.\u201c<\/p>\n She obliged, claiming that her \u201cSouthern and military ethics\u201d prevented her from backing out.<\/p>\n \u201cI was 24. I also had a baby. I had a one-year-old. I was a new mom. I had the biggest movie come out that summer,\u201d she added, referring to \u201cLegally Blonde.\u201d<\/p>\n As for the show, Witherspoon said, \u201cwe did it and it was good,\u201d but noted she \u201ccompletely left [her] body\u201d during it. The experience was so jarring that she admitted she \u201cdid not go again for 15 years,\u201d referring to her second time hosting in 2015.<\/p>\n The 2011 episode opened with then-New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani delivering a speech, surrounded by New York City firefighters and police officers. Paul Simon then appeared to sing \u201cThe Boxer\u201d before Witherspoon\u2019s monologue and the sketches came on.<\/p>\n Witherspoon has not hosted \u201cSNL\u201d since 2015.<\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reese Witherspoon attends “The Morning Show” Season 4 New York Premiere at Museum of Modern Art on September…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88],"class_list":["post-280826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}