Bleachers to replace Roddy Ricch on 'SNL' this weekend due to COVID-19

Bleachers will replace Roddy Ricch on this weekend’s episode of Saturday Night Live following a “recent COVID exposure” in the rapper’s team.

The Compton rapper had been due to be the long-running variety show’s first musical guest of 2022, with West Side Story‘s Ariana DeBose guest-hosting this Saturday’s edition (January 15).

However, Ricch has now been forced to pull out of performing this weekend after a member of his team was recently “exposed” to coronavirus.

“Due to recent COVID exposure on my team and to keep everyone safe, I won’t be able to perform on SNL this weekend,” Ricch wrote in a statement on Instagram.

“I’m working with the SNL team to lock in a new date though. Love, stay safe.”

SNL have now confirmed that Bleachers will be stepping in on Saturday to take Ricch’s place. The last-minute appearance will mark the Jack Antonoff-led band’s SNL debut.

Ricch’s SNL withdrawal follows on from the cancellation last month of Charli XCX’s guest musical appearance on the show due to surging cases of coronavirus in New York City.

Charli, who had been set to perform with Caroline Polachek and Christine And The Queens on the December 18 episode of the show, said she was “devastated and heartbroken” by the cancellation.

Bleachers, meanwhile, will aim to release their fourth album later this year, according to Antonoff.

Antonoff’s previous record with Bleachers, ‘Take The Sadness Out Of Saturday Night’, was released last July – just over four years on from ‘Gone Now’, which came out in June 2017.

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