‘Saturday Night Live’ Season 51: Everything We Know So Far

“Live from New York, it’s Saturday night!” For a while, it wasn’t clear if those now-immortal words would continue to ring out from Studio 8H after the series’ golden anniversary, but now it looks like Saturday Night Live will indeed continue on to Season 51.

Creator Lorne Michaels previously indicated that he might be ready to walk away from the iconic NBC sketch comedy series after Season 50, but he has now changed his mind. Michaels told The Hollywood Reporter, “As long as it’s important and I can be useful, I’ll stay… It’s more about keeping it on course than anything else, and, obviously, I really love it. And every year there are more and more people whom I rely on for other things, but, in the end, you really need someone to say, ‘This is what we’re doing.’ So I don’t really have an answer; I just know that this is kind of what I do, and as long as I can keep doing it, I’ll keep doing it. There’s no immediate plan.”

So what else is there to know about SNL Season 51 at this time? Here’s a look.

When will SNL Season 51 premiere?

SNL will return for its Season 51 premiere on Saturday, October 4 at 11:30/10:30c on NBC.

Who will star in SNL Season 51?

A formal cast list for Season 51 has not yet been revealed. The repertory players who returned for Season 50 included James Austin Johnson, Chloe Fineman, Sarah Sherman, Andrew Dismukes, Ego Nwodim, Mikey Day, Heidi Gardner, Bowen Yang, and Kenan Thompson. Meanwhile, Marcello Hernández, and Michael Longfellow were promoted to repertory players for Season 50. Michael Che and Colin Jost also returned as co-anchors of “Weekend Update.” New to the season were Ashley Padilla, Emil Wakim, and Jane Wickline.

On August 25, Devon Walker announced via Instagram that he would be exiting the show after three seasons. In his post, he wrote: “Me and the show did three years togther. And sometimes it was really cool. And sometimes it was toxic as hell. But we did what we made the most of it was, even amidst all the dysfunction. We made a f***ked up lil family.” Then, Emil Wakim announced his departure, and Michael Longfellow was announced as the third cast exit. Heidi Gardner was the fourth to leave.

Meanwhile, the cast has also increased by five newcomer featured players: Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane, Ben Marshall, Kam Patterson, and Veronika Slowikowska. See photos and more details about each right here.

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What will happen in Season 51?

As Michael Che told THR, “I try not to think about it in the macro — in Season 51, we can look back at 50 and say what was special about it, but it’s impossible to determine what is going to be special. You can’t plan for a perfect moment.”

Be sure to bookmark this page for continued updates as new details about Season 51 come through.

Saturday Night Live, Season 51 premiere, October 4, 11:30/10:30c, NBC