Is SNL New Tonight? Season 52 Premieres Sept. 26 With Jalen Brunson

• No new episode tonight. Saturday Night Live Season 52 premieres on Saturday, Sept. 26, at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC, live on Peacock.
• Knicks guard Jalen Brunson hosts the premiere, with KATSEYE as musical guest. Dakota Johnson hosts Oct. 3.
• Chloe Fineman is the only cast member not coming back. Two featured players join: Saidah Belo-Osagie and Grace Reiter.

If you turned on NBC at 11:30 on a Saturday this month and got a rerun, that is because the new season has not started. It starts next week.

Saturday Night Live returns on Sept. 26. That is the show’s earliest premiere since 2012, when Season 38 opened on Sept. 15.

When does SNL Season 52 start?

Saturday, Sept. 26, live at 11:30 p.m. ET, 10:30 CT and 8:30 PT on NBC, simulcast on Peacock. Episodes stream on Peacock from Sunday morning.

The show has drifted around the calendar. The last five premieres fell on Oct. 4 (Season 51), Sept. 28 (Season 50), Oct. 14 (Season 49), Oct. 1 (Season 48) and Oct. 2 (Season 47).

Who is hosting SNL Season 52?

NBC has announced the first four hosts and musical guests.

Sept. 26: Jalen Brunson, with KATSEYE. Oct. 3: Dakota Johnson, with Turnstile. Oct. 10: Shane Gillis, with Rosalía. Oct. 31: Inde Navarrette, with Gracie Abrams.

Brunson gets the premiere after leading the Knicks to their first NBA title in 53 years in June.

Johnson hosts two weeks after she and Machine Gun Kelly were photographed together in New York on Sept. 12, weeks after her split from singer Role Model. The two are reportedly seeing each other; neither has addressed it publicly.

Who is in the SNL Season 52 cast?

Everyone from last season except one. Chloe Fineman, the impressionist behind the show’s Jennifer Coolidge and Drew Barrymore, announced on July 16 that she was leaving after seven seasons. Writer Martin Herlihy, of the Please Don’t Destroy trio, also left in September.

Returning: Kenan Thompson, Colin Jost, Michael Che, Mikey Day, Sarah Sherman, Ashley Padilla, James Austin Johnson, Marcello Hernández, Andrew Dismukes, Jane Wickline, Ben Marshall, Jeremy Culhane, Kam Patterson, Tommy Brennan and Veronika Slowikowska.

New featured players: Saidah Belo-Osagie, a Queens-born writer and director behind the solo show Saidah Gets Closure, and Grace Reiter, from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, whose credits include HBO’s The Chair Company.

The last time the whole desk was on air, Jost and Che closed Season 51 with their yearly joke swap, reading punchlines written by the other for the first time.

The show went into the break with its 114th Emmy, for makeup, extending its all-time record. The comedy side of this year’s Emmys belonged to ‘Widow’s Bay,’ which set a new record with 14 wins. More TV in Movies & TV, including why Whoopi Goldberg is off ‘The View’ for two weeks.

— Bruno Monteiro

Sources: NBC and NBC Insider (Samantha Vincenty), Season 52 announcement; Chloe Fineman’s Instagram, July 16, 2026; Gold Derby (Marcus James Dixon); Variety; Television Academy (Emmy totals). Photos: frames from Weekend Update: Colin Jost and Michael Che Swap Jokes for Season 51 Finale (Saturday Night Live) and Emotional Jalen Brunson interview (New York Knicks).