Jean Smart, Ariana Grande, Michael Keaton among hosts for 'SNL' season 50

NEW YORK (AP) — Fresh off her Emmys win, Jean Smart is taking her comedy to a new audience — she’ll kick off “Saturday Night Live’s” landmark 50th season.

NBC on Thursday announced the lineup of hosts for the season, which premieres Sept. 28. Joining Smart on the first show will be Jelly Roll as the musical act. He was also at the Emmys, singing during the ceremony's in memoriam segment.

It will be Smart's first time hosting “SNL” and Jelly Roll's first time performing on the show. Smart shared the news on Instagram, writing that hosting was a “bucket list” item for her.

The rest of the hosts and musical guests — save breakout sensation Chappell Roan, who will make her musical guest debut in November — are returning to the series. Comedian Nate Bargatze, who hosted last October to great success, thanks to a sketch where he played George Washington, will host again Oct. 5, with Coldplay as the musical guest. Coldplay has previously performed on the show seven times, and will ring in the eighth right after the band's newest album, “Moon Music,” releases.

Ariana Grande — who stars in the upcoming “Wicked” film adaption — will host for the second time Oct. 12. She has previously been the musical guest twice, but Fleetwood Mac icon Stevie Nicks will perform for Grande's episode. Nicks was a musical guest once prior, in 1983.

“Beetlejuice” star Michael Keaton will host on Oct. 19, the last show before Halloween, in his fourth time on the show, and Billie Eilish will be that night's musical guest, also marking her fourth time on “SNL.”

“SNL” alum John Mulaney will return to the show as host for the sixth time on Nov. 2, with Roan as the music guest. Mulaney, who worked as a writer on the show before making it big as a stand-up comedian, is behind some of “SNL's” most well-known bits, like Bill Hader as Stefon, a “Weekend Update” regular.

The 50th season has been highly anticipated during the show's summer hiatus, with fans calling for Maya Rudolph to reprise her role as Kamala Harris and clamoring for Tim Walz-lookalike Steve Martin to make an appearance as the vice presidential candidate, a role he has since declined.

This combination of photos shows Jean Smart, from left, Nate Bargatze, Ariana Grande, and Michael Keaton, who will host upcoming episodes of "Saturday Night Live." (AP Photo)

Chappell Roan accepts the award for best new artist during the MTV Video Music Awards on Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024, at UBS Arena in Elmont, N.Y. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

Jelly Roll arrives at the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

Jean Smart poses in the press room with the award for outstanding lead actress in a comedy series for "Hacks" during the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

NEW YORK (AP) — Less than two weeks before his 100th birthday, former President Jimmy Carter is receiving a lifetime achievement award from the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation, which has set aside its longstanding rule that the winner accept the honor in person.

The Ohio-based foundation announced Thursday that Carter was this year's winner of the Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award, named for the late diplomat. In 2002, Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his human rights advocacy and for brokering such agreements as the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel.

Carter, who turns 100 on Oct. 1, is in hospice care in Plains, Georgia. His grandson, Jason Carter, will accept the prize on his behalf during a November ceremony that will honor the former president’s peace efforts and his authorship of more than 30 books — what the foundation calls “the power of the written word to foster peace, social justice, and global understanding.”

“For the past 17 years, one of the standing requirements to receive the Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award was a guaranty that the recipient would appear in person in Dayton, OH for an on-stage interview and an awards ceremony," Nicholas A. Raines, executive director of the Dayton foundation, said in a statement. “This year we have decided to waive that requirement and present the award in absentia, to President Jimmy Carter.”

Jason Carter said in a statement that two of his grandfather's “most enduring interests have been a devotion to literature and a near-constant pursuit of a peaceful resolution to conflict.”

“It is gratifying to have the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation choose to honor my grandfather with the Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award for a lifetime of work melding two of his loves — literature and peace,” Jason Carter added.

On Thursday, the Foundation also announced that Paul Lynch's “Prophet Song” won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Fiction and Victor Luckerson's “Built from the Fire” won for nonfiction.

Lynch and Luckerson each will receive $10,000. Fiction runner-up, “The Postcard” author Anne Berest, and nonfiction finalist, “Red Memory” author Tania Branigan, each get $5,000.

FILE - Egypt's President Anwar Sadat, left, shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin as U.S. President Jimmy Carter, center, looks on at Camp David, Md., Sept. 7, 1978. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, left, U.S. President Jimmy Carter, center, and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin clasp hands on the North lawn of the White House as they completed signing of the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel in Washington on March, 26, 1979. (AP Photo/Bob Daugherty, File)

FILE - Former President Jimmy Carter teaches Sunday School class at the Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown of Plains, Ga., Aug. 23, 2015. (AP Photo/David Goldman)