Melissa McCarthy drew amazed reactions to her apparent weight loss as she hosted Saturday Night Live for the sixth time this weekend.
The two-time Oscar nominee opened the long-running NBC sketch show wearing a figure-hugging, black velvet jumpsuit with bejewelled shoulders before being toppled by a huge faux snowstorm.
On X, viewers praised the Bridesmaid’s star’s new look.
“Melissa McCarthy! Oh my!! I’ve had a crush on her forever,” one person wrote. “I had no idea she had lost this much weight. Still crushing!”
“So Glad to see Melissa McCarthy Back on the SNL Stage, and She Looks Fabulous,” another gushed.
“Melissa McCarthy is literally snatched for this monologue,” wrote a third.
“Melissa McCarthy looks amazing! That monologue was so fun,” a fourth added.
McCarthy’s monologue saw her ask the show’s stage crew for “a little Christmas magic.”
“So how about we put a little bit of snow to get us in the holiday mood?” she said. “This is SNL, don’t be stingy with the snow!”
However, it quickly went from a flurry to an avalanche as a wave of fake snow fell on top of her. “Okay, that was way too much!” she exclaimed before continuing the monologue.
Earlier this year, Barbra Streisand drew backlash after commenting on a photo of McCarthy on Instagram to ask whether she was taking the weight-loss drug Ozempic.
McCarthy ended up taking to Instagram again to address the comment where she defended the EGOT winner.
“The takeaway — Barbra Streisand knows I exist? She reached out to me. And she thought I looked good. I win the day,” she wrote.
Streisand also issued a clarification on Instagram, claiming she only wanted to pay The Little Mermaid star a compliment. “She looked fantastic! I just wanted to pay her a compliment. I forgot the world is reading!”
The Gilmore Girls alum has been open about her attitude to weight loss in the past.
She told CBS Mornings in 2015: “I finally said [to myself], ‘Oh, for God’s sake, stop worrying about it,’ and it may be the best thing I’ve ever done.
“I truly stopped worrying about [my weight]. I stopped over-analyzing, over-thinking, over-doing anything.”
She added: “I just stopped constantly being worried about it, and I think there’s something to kinda loosening up and not being so nervous and rigid about it that, bizarrely, has worked.”
There are two episodes of SNL left in 2025. Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery star Josh O’Connor will make his hosting debut on December 13, joined by musical guest Lily Allen. Ariana Grande will close out the year on 20 December, with Cher making her first SNL appearance since 1987 as the musical guest.
Season 51 has already delivered six episodes, with Bad Bunny, Amy Poehler, Sabrina Carpenter, Miles Teller, Nikki Glaser and Glen Powell all taking a turn as hosts.
