This weekend's edition of "Saturday Night Live" didn't live up to the highs of the previous week (when Taylor Swift reigned supreme over just about every aspect of the show), but it still provided a handful of laughs. Host January Jones (of the critically-acclaimed television drama "Mad Men") looked a little lost at times but still turned in some memorable moments. But most of the notable highlights came courtesy of musical guests the Black Eyed Peas. The group turned in a trio of excellent performances and managed to get the normally staid "SNL" audience to make a little noise and bang around a bit.

The quartet also delivered on the comedy front. In one of the episode's first sketches, the Peas appeared as the guests on "Today," hosted by Kathy Lee Gifford (played by Kristen Wiig) and Hoda Kotb (played by newcomer Jenny Slate). During the sketch, Wiig's Gifford starts singing, which profoundly upsets the members of the Peas (their reactions are pretty priceless). Eventually, they attack Gifford. Fergie throws a haymaker, Apl.de.ap drops an elbow and Taboo even beats her with his new signature sneakers (as clever a piece of product placement as we've seen). Really, the Peas could have easily shared hosting and performing duties just like Swift did, as Fergie, Will.i.Am and Taboo all have acting experience (Will starred in this summer's "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," Taboo appeared in "Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li" and Fergie stars in the upcoming movie musical "Nine"). Check out the attack on the faux Kathy Lee Gifford below (jump ahead to the final minute if you can't take Wiig's schtick — nobody would blame you).

On last night's episode of "Saturday Night Live," Taylor Swift made her second appearance as a musical guest and her first ever as the host. The result was the finest episode of the long-running late-night series so far this season (which, to be fair, has been pretty uneven). Sometimes the cast will wear kid gloves around non-actors, but Swift obviously delivered on her promise on being game for anything, as she was in most every segment on the show. Rarely has a performer worked so hard, and she was rewarded for it with a handful of big laughs and torrents of applause.

As usual, the highlight of the night was the digital short, which was a trailer for a "Twilight" spoof called "Firelight." In it, Swift (in an awesomely bad Bella wig) pines over Frankenstein (who can't kiss people because he accidentally chokes them to death). Instead of a werewolf getting jealous, Swift's character is warned by a mummy. It was fantastically hilarious, especially Bill Hader's performance as the object of Swift's affection. The rest of the show was formidable, but "Firelight" will certainly live on as a classic bit of comedy that Swift can add to her constantly-growing resumé as a multi-dimensional entertainer.

Tomorrow night, Taylor Swift will once again grace the stage at Studio 8H at Rockefeller Center when she serves as both the host and musical guest on this week's edition of "Saturday Night Live." It's familiar territory for Swift, who was last on the show back in January, making this her second appearance overall (and the second in this calendar year). Considering the cast hasn't shifted that dramatically between last season and this one, she should be comfortable and familiar with her surroundings. As her promos for this week's show — as well as the promos she cut with host Neil Patrick Harris back in January — she's perfectly comfortable with banter.

Swift wouldn't reveal very much about this weekend's show (except that nothing would be off limits), there are a few things that are almost certain to happen on Saturday night.

She'll Be In An Andy Samberg-fueled Digital Short: When the gig was announced, this was the only thing on Swift's wishlist. And she's done well in the past with experiments like this — remember her collaboration with T-Pain?
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Taylor Swift will join an exclusive group of VIPs that includes Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears when she appears on this weekend's episode of "Saturday Night Live."

Pulling double duty as both host and musical performer, Taylor has her work cut out for her this week. When we stopped by the "SNL" studios to catch up with the starlet, it was pretty clear that Taylor is very excited.

It was my first time visiting the "SNL" studio, and despite not growing up with the show in England, the nostalgia was not wasted on me. Back home in the U.K., we have our ways of getting the show, even though "SNL" doesn't air on TV. We're pretty innovative when we want to be.

At the show, Taylor walked in looking casually chic in an argyll jumper and tights. She greeted everyone in the room with a big "Hi guys!" Standing on the mezzanine with the "SNL" studio over our shoulder, Taylor and I talked on her upcoming double duty, her sense of humour and the fact that she bravely told writers that nothing was off limits.

And we couldn't let Taylor go without squeezing in some questions about her favourite new songs off the re-released Fearless album, what and who she's writing about and the musical direction of her next album. Look out for more from the interview with Taylor Swift in the coming days.

I attended one other "SNL" rehearsal earlier this year (what's up, Taylor Swift?) and it still does hit you every time you walk into that famed studio that the stage is, well, small. When you watch it on TV week after week, they make it look expansive, but as it turns out it isn't.

It seems that someone else feels the same way about the whole experience: This week's host, Ryan Reynolds, who will be on the show alongside musical guest Lady Gaga. Despite all the experience the Hollywood A-lister has, he too couldn't get over the fact that the stage is smaller than you'd expect it to be.

"It's been amazing. I mean everybody's so supportive a group of people like this not only have they done sketches for forever but they’ve also had hosts come in forever," he told MTV News about his hosting gig. "It’s a pretty well-oiled machine. The stage is about 40 times smaller than I ever though it would be. It's like wearing a sweater made of glass and really hilarious people. It's itty bitty."

Yes, Ryan, it is. And Ryan, please don't be mad at us for confusing you with Ryan Adams. We're still not sure how that happened. Can we still be friends?

The "Fame Kills" tour may be off, but Lady Gaga still has business to attend to. She is this weekend's musical guest on "Saturday Night Live" (which will be hosted by "The Proposal" star Ryan Reynolds), and they have just unleashed a series of promos previewing this weekend's show.

There are three spots in total. In two of them, Reynolds and Gaga are joined by "SNL" cast member Fred Armisen, who cracks jokes about her outfit (a blue dress that looks like it came from Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" costume closet) and also wonders if there is a corresponding "Lord Gaga."

"No, but I have a feeling that's about to change," she tells Armisen while gazing at him seductively. (Nobody tell Armisen fiancé and "Mad Men" star Elisabeth Moss!)

The third promo features only Gaga and Reynolds, and they joke about how awkward it would have been had the host gone through with his plan to wear the same dress that the musical guest is wearing.

Gaga says she plans on performing a new single on Saturday night's show, which comes from the expanded re-release of her debut album The Fame (which she is calling The Fame: Monster) that will hit stores in November. (Gaga will also be playing "Paparazzi" on Saturday night's show, though space issues won't allow it to be nearly as over-the-top as her performance of the same song at the Video Music Awards.) As of this morning, there were still no reasons given for the cancellation of the "Fame Kills" tour (a co-headlining run with Kanye West).

Hey, Justin Timberlake, watch out: The new kid on "Saturday Night Live" will slap you with a cheeseburger.

Sure, Bobby Moynihan is willing to give you lots of accolades and kind words for your work together on the now-famous "Single Ladies" skit. "That Beyoncé thing, a lot of the jokes that were in it were his that we had made up during rehearsing for it. And we have the same birthday."

And he also had other nice things to say, like, "He was awesome ... another class act," and, "He's actually really cool."

But he wants you to know that you're not cool or funny enough to take his job. You're going to have to take him on to get it.
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Live from New York, it's my first time at "Saturday Night Live"!

Earlier this week, I got the offer from Taylor Swift's publicist to stop by the "SNL" rehearsals to interview Ms. Swift, as well as the show's host, Mr. Doogie Howser himself, Neil Patrick Harris. What was I going to do, say no?

So, I rolled up to 30 Rock with my crew and embarked on the exciting chance to check out the famous studio for myself. As I said yesterday, the studio was smaller than I expected. It's unimaginable how they turn a pretty sparse room into weekly TV magic. Although, it was cool to see the music stage, as well as the stage that they do the monologue in front of.

Not to get all Hollywood on you here, but I've met Taylor Swift on several occasions, and it seems like every time we meet up, I have a new hairstyle (for those keeping track, I now have bangs) and she is a bigger superstar than the time before. And I never mind when she gives me one of her famous hugs.
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When we caught wind that MTV favorite Taylor Swift was going to be the show's musical guest, we jumped at the opportunity to stop by rehearsals and get a first-hand look at what happens just days before the show goes live. It also didn't hurt that the show's host is Neil Patrick Harris.

It was interesting being in the "Saturday Night Live" studio at 30 Rock — it's much smaller than it appears live from New York every Saturday night. But you get the sense that comedy magic is brewing in that room. We arrived just as Taylor was finishing up her soundcheck, but we had the opportunity to catch a bunch of other fantastic moments.

We got a little peek at one of the sketches set to possibly air on Saturday — Neil plays David Frost and spoofs the film "Frost/Nixon" by interviewing other famous people of the '70s.  It was really funny, so hopefully it will make it to air.  We also had the opportunity to meet one of the newer castmembers, Bobby Moynihan, who, needless to say, made us chuckle a few times.
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There's the easy way, and there's Kanye's way.

Rather than staying in the platinum-dipped, award-winning lane he's already carved with his previous albums, Kanye West promised to swerve on 808s & Heartbreak, taking the bold step of trying to sing more than rap. We already know 50 Cent's not that crazy about it, and after 'Ye's appearance on "Saturday Night Live" over the weekend, even more people are starting to ask if maybe Yeezy bit off more than he can croon.

Without the assistance of his near-omnipresent vocoder — which he employed more heavily during his VMA debut of "Love Lockdown" in September — to massage his vocals into a robotic smoothness, West's singing abilities were laid bare during the performance, and his vocals sometimes hit flat spots amid the spare musical accompaniment. That drew some harsh criticism from a number of Web outposts, like this and this. Gawker called it "like a quiet man doing bad karaoke" and headlined its review "Kanye West Disastrously Sings Without Digital Enhancement," but when TMZ caught up with 'Ye at the airport on Sunday, he deemed his performance "good" and he was not shy about posting the footage on his blog, where poster "neeomari" referred to the version of "Lockdown" as "hands down the greatest 'SNL' performance of all time."

So, what did you think of Kanye's singing on 'SNL'?