Donald Glover will return to 30 Rock for the show’s live broadcast on Thursday, April 26th at 8:30 pm.  Glover worked as a writer on the show from 2006 through 2009.  He, along with other 30 Rock writers, won the 2008 Writers Guild of America Award for Best Comedy.  Although he would make occasional cameo appearances while writing for the show, he is scheduled to appear this week as a younger Tracy Jordan, the character portrayed by Tracy Morgan.

This marks the second live episode of 30 Rock.  The first, directed by Beth McCarthy-Miller (who will also be behind the camera this Thursday), aired on October 14th, 2010.  The first live episode featured surprise appearances by Matt Damon, Mad Men’s Jon Hamm, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, currently starring on HBO’s Veep, as Tina Fey’s character Liz Lemon during the shows trademark swoosh back segues.  Fey, who is also the creator of the show, has already promised that there will be more surprise cameos this week.

Instead of merely rebroadcasting the show for the West Coast, the cast are planning to film two separate episodes for the East and West Coasts, with those in the Central time zone viewing the East Coast broadcast.  The first live episode was filmed twice for each coast as well.

Glover recently appeared both weekends on the main stage at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival performing under the name Childish Gambino:

Before flying to New York for the 30 Rock taping, he also performed a secret show in Los Angeles on Monday, April 23rd.  He can also be seen earlier in NBC’s Thursday line-up as Troy Barnes on the cult favorite Community at 8:00 pm: