Saturday Night Live choosing reality star Kim Kardashian to host will likely continue the show's awful history with non-actors. Having been on the air since 1975, SNL is a TV institution, and will presumably keep running until NBC ceases being a thing. At its best, SNL is a great time, carrying a party-esque atmosphere, and a mission statement valuing laughs above all else.
While the nature of sketch comedy means few Saturday Night Live episodes are truly excellent, the venerable show has definitely seen its ups and downs over the years. Yet, no matter how far SNL may sometimes appear to fall off, it usually seems to find its way back to pop culture relevancy. One of the biggest factors in whether an episode works is of course its host, who opens with a monologue, and usually participates in multiple sketches.
A good Saturday Night Live cast can elevate an episode with a mediocre host, but it's hard to save the instances where a host outright bombs. Unsurprisingly, this happens most often when SNL brings in a host that isn't an actor or comedian. Having a pop culture figure from outside those realms is always a gamble. Fan response to the announcement that Kim Kardashian will host SNL has drawn widespread derision, and that makes sense. She has no experience that indicates she'll excel in the role.
It's understandable why Saturday Night Live does things like this. Kim Kardashian has a large fanbase, regardless of her detractors, and that's been true for many other questionable SNL hosts. The problem is, it's hard to imagine Kardashian, someone without experience as a comedic performer, doing well. Thus, her episode will likely end up on future "worst SNL host" lists, alongside fellow non-actors like Space X boss Elon Musk, former president Donald Trump, Paris Hilton, Justin Bieber, Ronda Rousey, Rudy Guiliani, and Lance Armstrong. While those people have all appeared in movies, some even playing characters, they all gained their actual fame for things other than their performing abilities, and have thus never shown much acting range onscreen.
While it's very true that not every actor or comedian ends up being a good Saturday Night Live host either, succeeding at sketch comedy requires a unique skill set, including the ability to adjust on the fly if something isn't landing or something unexpected happens. Even an actor as talented as Robert Downey Jr. discovered after one SNL season that he wasn't cut out for the gig. Being an actor and/or comedian makes one much more likely to have the abilities necessary to perform well in sketches, and as seen by almost every instance in which a non-performer has been picked to host Saturday Night Live, they just don't usually take to it.