Jon Hamm on Preparing to Host ‘SNL’ for the First Time in 15 Years (Exclusive)

• Jon Hamm tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview that he is excited to host Saturday Night Live again
• When the actor hosts SNL on April 12, he will be joined by Lizzo as the evening’s musical guest
• Hamm, who made his hosting debut in October 2008, last hosted in October 2010

Jon Hamm is a Saturday Night Live pro at this point.

In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, the actor, 54, says he is excited to return to host the late-night series for the first time in over a decade on April 12.

“It’s funny. It’s been 15 years since I hosted, so I’ve forgotten — Am I supposed to be nervous yet? I don’t remember,” he says.

“I’m very much looking forward to it. It’s a tremendous honor to be asked back,” continues Hamm. “It’s such a unique thing to do in our industry, and in television, and obviously, with the 50th anniversary being what it was, and I was a big part of that too, that was very cool.”

“I’m just so honored to be a part of that family, for sure,” adds the Your Friends and Neighbors star. “It’s really, really cool.”

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When Hamm hosts SNL on April 12, he will be joined by Lizzo, who will serve as the evening’s musical guest.

The Mad Men alum last hosted the show in October 2010. Before that, he hosted in January 2010, and he made his hosting debut in October 2008.

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Hamm’s 2025 hosting gig will move him closer to joining SNL‘s iconic and prestigious Five-Timers Club — an elusive group of people who have hosted the show at least five times.

Reflecting on that achievement, Hamm tells PEOPLE, “I’m in the Fantastic Four. I’ve coined that term.”

Earlier this year, while speaking with reporters following his crowning as the 2025 Hasty Pudding Man of the Year at Harvard in Cambridge, Mass., Hamm opened up about why he will be “forever grateful” to SNL creator Lorne Michaels for his prolific career.

“I really credit none other than Lorne Michaels for offering me a [chance to] host Saturday Night Live [for the first time] to really get the sense of, well, I do have a funny side to me,” he said.

“Most of the people who knew me before they knew me for Mad Men knew that was the predominant side of me. So Lorne gave me that opportunity, which led to 30 Rock, which led to Bridesmaids, which led to a lot of other gigs in the Tina Fey, Robert Carlock, Lorne Michaels universe,” Hamm continued. “So I’ll be forever grateful for that.”

The actor explained that amid the success of Mad Men — in which he portrayed Don Draper, the enigmatic creative director of a fictional New York City advertising agency in the 1960s — he “was offered a lot of roles that were a version of that character, where you had been smoking a cigarette and sort of brooding, looking out a window into the dark city of some kind of place.”

Saturday Night Live airs weekends on NBC.