When he appeared as a guest host on Saturday Night Live back in March, Travis Kelce not only fulfilled a lifelong ambition of featuring on the comedy show.
As well as capturing that childhood dream, Kelce also completed a strategic three-year scheme engineered by both the Kansas City star and his agents to get him on SNL.
In an interview with twin brothers and managers Aaron and Andre Eanes, who have represented Travis over the past decade, The New York Times revealed the masterplan behind Kelce’s hosting spot earlier this year.
Having ended his reality TV dating show ‘Catching Kelce’ after just one season, Kelce, a lifelong comedy fan, set his managers the challenging task of arranging a guest appearance on SNL.
Aaron Eanes is said to have initially reached out to the show’s producers during the 2020 NFL season, only for their response to prove ‘lukewarm at best’.
Travis Kelce completed a three-year plan to appear on Saturday Night Live when he featured as a guest host back in March
Kelce and twin-brother agents Andre (left) and Aaron (right) Eanes devised the plan
The Chiefs star then ‘chatted up’ and impressed SNL producer Lorne Michaels (left) in October 2021, before he got invited onto the show a day after winning last year’s Super Bowl (right)
However, it was Kelce himself who set the wheels in motion for his eventual host spot when he crossed paths with SNL creator and producer Lorne Michaels at one of the show’s New York City afterparties in October 2021.
The Chiefs tight end proceeded to ‘chatting up’ Michaels at the party and is understood to have left a lasting impression on the SNL boss, a move which ultimately paid dividends.
The day after he clinched a second Super Bowl crown in February of this year, Kelce’s management received a call from SNL inviting him onto the show.
Less than a month after lifting the Vince Lombardi trophy, Travis choked up during his opening monologue after inviting his brother Jason and parents Donna and Ed along to the broadcast.
Since that debut hosting appearance, Kelce has reached even loftier levels of fame after striking up a romance with pop sensation Taylor Swift in September.
The loved-up couple also made brief cameos on SNL back in October, with Swift introducing American rapper Ice Spice as a musical act and Kelce featuring at the end of a skit on the level of attention given to his girlfriend during NFL broadcasts.
And after his second appearance on the show, the 34-year-old revealed he could barely remember it after blacking out.
‘I don’t even remember what I said, I blacked out,’ he told brother Jason on their New Heights podcast. ‘As soon as they cued to me, the entire place erupted which was very overwhelming and I’m not even sure if I said anything.
Kelce then fulfilled a lifelong ambition when he appeared as a guest SNL host in March 2023
Seven months later the NFL star and girlfriend Taylor Swift made brief cameos on the show
Kelce’s fame has skyrocketed since he entered a relationship with pop sensation Swift
‘I walked off stage and I said, “I didn’t say anything at all.” Everyone was like, “Yeah you killed it.” I watched it over and I still don’t really know if I said what I was supposed to.’
In their piece on the Eanes brothers, The New York Times also suggested Kelce’s managers have a carefully curated plan to make him globally famous which could include a film about the two-time Super Bowl winner.
The publication says ‘film scripts have been passed around’ and that game shows are also under consideration.
Kelce signed with entertainment agency CAA (Creative Artists Agency) back in May and had a significant enough footprint off the field before he and Swift went public in September.
