After a pretty momentous season celebrating its 50th anniversary, Saturday Night Live has set its return.
The venerable NBC show will premiere its Season 51 on October 4. It’s in line with recent premiere dates, with Season 50 returning on September 28, Season 49 premiering on October 14 and Season 48 launching on October 1.
NBC did not announce who would host the season premiere.
The process for who will be leaving and who will be staying on the late-night variety show is still in its early stages; creator Lorne Michaels is not expected to make any big decisions for at least the next couple of weeks.
The first round of submissions for new cast took place ahead of the July 4 weekend, but it’s unclear how many slots are available and Michaels usually holidays in Europe over the summer. Sources did tell Deadline this month that he was leaning more toward strong, character-driven performers rather than stand-ups for Season 51, but as Matt Grobar noted in his Comedy Means Business newsletter, take this with a grain of salt as casting at SNL is described as “fluid” and “sometimes unpredictable.”
Observers do expect there to be some departures ahead of Season 51 but they aren’t expecting a full exodus like the one that happened at the end of Season 47, which saw the exit of eight cast members including Aidy Bryant, Pete Davidson, Kate McKinnon, Alex Moffat, Kyle Mooney, Chris Redd and Melissa Villaseñor.
There are currently 17 people in the SNL cast: rep players Michael Che, Mikey Day, Andrew Dismukes, Chloe Fineman, Heidi Gardner, Marcello Hernandez, James Austin Johnson, Colin Jost, Michael Longfellow, Ego Nwodim, Sarah Sherman, Kenan Thompson, Devon Walker and Bowen Yang and featured players Ashley Padilla, Emil Wakim and Jane Wickline.
