Maya Rudolph is returning to NBC next month. Her new one-hour special, entitled The Maya Rudolph Show, is set to premiere Monday, May 19th, at 10pm, EW reports. The one-off variety show special will double as a pilot for a potential series.
Guests for the show will include Kristen Bell, Andy Samberg, Fred Armisen, Craig Robinson, Sean Hayes, and Chris Parnell, with Janelle Monáe as musical guest and Raphael Saaddiq as bandleader. Lorne Michaels, who worked with Rudolph as a producer on SNL and Up All Night, is also serving as a producer on The Maya Rudolph Show.
Right around this time last year when Up All Night was falling apart, Maya Rudolph turned down five sitcom offers to instead develop her own variety show. NBC, ABC, and Fox were all interested, but NBC won out and got the potential series. The daughter of soul singer Minnie Riperton, Rudolph is a musician in addition to being an actress/comedian. Before SNL, she was a studio backing singer and was briefly the keyboardist for the band The Rentals. She currently performs with Princess, the Prince cover band she formed with Gretchen Lieberum.
