NEW YORK — People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive of 2021 was inducted into the vaunted Five-Timers Club on “Saturday Night Live,” but the surging omicron variant of the coronavirus meant there was no live audience to see it happen. Instead, viewers at home saw new sketches taped earlier in the week, as well as highlights from years past.

What You Need To Know

  • Actor Paul Rudd hosted 'SNL' on Saturday without a live audience

  • The show had a limited cast, too, due to a spike in omicron cases nationwide 

  • The appearance was Rudd's fifth on the sketch comedy show

  • British pop star Charli XCX did not perform as originally scheduled

The long-running sketch comedy show announced on social media Saturday afternoon that the night’s episode, featuring “Ant-Man” star Paul Rudd as host, would tape without a live audience and with only limited cast and crew “due to the recent spike in the Omicron variant and out of an abundance of caution.”

By the time 11:30 p.m. Eastern Time rolled around, the entire cast — save for Kenan Thompson — and most of the crew had been sent home, too, Tom Hanks told viewers. Hanks opened the show, which forewent its usual cold open skit, to announce the departure from the show’s planned Christmas episode. The episode was the NBC show’s last of 2021.

Hanks was joined by former “SNL” stalwart Tina Fey, both sporting their Five-Timers jackets.

“As you know, I started the Five-Timers Club,” Hanks said, addressing Fey.

“Like you started COVID,” Fey retorted, alluding to the star’s coronavirus diagnosis in March 2020.

Rudd was scheduled to return to Studio 8H as host for the fifth time — typically a milestone of much fanfare. Despite the show dispensing with its usual format, the pair announced that Rudd would still be inducted into the club and called Thompson, as the longest-tenured cast member, to do the honors.

“Congratulations on hosting the show four-and-a-half times,” Thompson told Rudd.

British pop star Charli XCX had been scheduled to perform but announced Saturday afternoon on Twitter that she would not be allowed to perform.

The show returned for its 47th year in September with 16 cast members and five featured players, a particularly crowded field. The size of the cast has allowed for atypical flexibility for its high-profile members, who can now take time off for other projects during the season.