A teenage Frankie Muniz turned down the chance to become one of the youngest hosts in Saturday Night Live history so he could meet his crush instead, the actor has revealed.
In the early 2000s, Muniz was one of the biggest stars on television thanks to his lead role in the hit sitcom Malcolm in the Middle, which is being revived later this year.
He was only 15 years old when he was invited to host SNL, but now, years later, Muniz has admitted his reasons for rejecting the opportunity.
“My mom gets a call one day, and she's freaking out, so excited. It's Gail Berman, who at the time was the president of Fox,” he told the Lightweights Podcast.
“She goes, 'You got asked to host Saturday Night Live. I'm like, 'What's that?' And she's like, 'It's huge. You'll be one of the youngest people ever. It's this big deal.'"
However, the episode filming would have clashed with the 2000 Kids' Choice Awards, which Muniz had been asked to co-host. He was keen to attend because Amanda Bynes, whom he had a “huge crush on”, was going to be there.
“I'm like, 'Oh, hell no. I am going to the Kids' Choice Awards, right? I don't care. I'm meeting Amanda Bynes at the Kids' Choice Awards,’” Muniz said.
His decision apparently didn’t go down well: “For about a week and a half, I had every executive, every producer, everybody in the history of Fox TV, Regency TV, going, ‘What are you doing?’”
However, he stood firm and attended the awards show where he did indeed meet Bynes, presenting her with the award for Favourite TV Actress for her parts in The Amanda Show and All That.
The actor would later get to star in a movie with Bynes, for the 2002 family comedy Big Fat Liar, which also starred Paul Giamatti.
Incidentally, although Muniz would have been a very young SNL host, he wouldn’t have been the youngest. That honour goes to Drew Barrymore, who was only seven when she hosted the comedy sketch show in November 1982.
Muniz, now 39, has since transitioned into a career as a NASCAR driver and has been competing in the Craftsman Truck Series since 2024, achieving a career best finish of 10th in February.
He has acted sporadically for the last 10 years but will be reprising his most famous role for the upcoming Malcolm in the Middle revival, with Bryan Cranston, and Jane Kaczmarek for four new episodes.
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