Saturday Night Live season 52 is upon us and here are the hosts and musical guests that we know of so far. On September 26, 2026, the 52nd season of SNL will debut, bringing with it a suite of new hosts and musical performances, enshrining the celebrities and acts as the most important pop culture figures of the last few months.
As of September 19, 2026, we only know the hosts and musical guests for the first four episodes of the show, but that’s not all that unusual. Audiences often don’t know who’s hosting every episode until partway through the season. So far this year, we have veteran hosts, sports stars, and global supergroups making their way to 30 Rockefeller Plaza.
Jalen Brunson
Episode 1 Host, September 26, 2026
It’s fitting that New York City’s favorite son was drafted to host the season’s opener. Point Guard Jalen Brunson led the New York Knicks to the team’s first NBA championship in 53 years in 2026, reigniting a franchise and signaling that the new Knicks are anything but the Knicks of a decade ago.
Drafted by the Dallas Mavericks in 2018, Brunson signed with the Knicks in 2022, and is now their team captain, a 3x NBA All-Star with the team, and the 2026 NBA Finals MVP. He’s the King of New York. This won’t be Brunson’s first live TV acting performance. In 2024, Brunson appeared alongside Tyrese Haliburton, guard for the Indiana Pacers, on WWE SmackDown.
Beyond WWE, this is Brunson’s first acting credit, joining a long line of athletes who have hosted the show. Quality has varied over the years, between the Peyton Mannnigs and the Michael Phelpses, but it’s always a good time seeing someone so proficient in athletics trying their hand in another high-intensity arena.
Katseye
Episode 1 Musical Guest, September 26, 2026
Katseye will be the first musical guest of the 52nd SNL season, bringing their brand of global pop music to the 30 Rock stage. Kayseye is an LA-based girl group with members from the Philippines, South Korea, Switzerland, and the United States, formed in the reality competition series Dream Academy.
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Katseye Members |
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|---|---|
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Name |
Country |
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Daniela Avanzini |
United States |
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Lara Raj |
United States |
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Manon Bannerman |
Switzerland |
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Megan Skiendiel |
United States |
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Sophia Laforteza |
Philippines |
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Yoonchae Jeung |
South Korea |
Their story was quickly turned into a docuseries, Pop Star Academy: Katseye, which showcases all the effort that went into building the group. Katseye draws from the early 2000s for their fashion identity, and their song, “Gabriela”, was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 68th Annual Grammy Awards, where they were also nominated for Best New Artist.
Dakota Johnson
Episode 2 Host, October 3, 2026
Dakota Johnson will be a day away from 37 when she hosts SNL season 52, episode 2, but it will be her third time hosting the show and her fifth time appearing on it. The Materialists star previously hosted season 40, episode 14 and season 49, episode 10. Johnson also appeared in the “Questions from the Audience” segment during the “SNL 40th Anniversary Special” and in Lily Allen’s musical performance in season 51, episode 8.
Johnson has quietly become a mainstay of SNL and has been a part of some excellent sketches. In her first hosting job, she starred in “ISIS Camry commercial”, a shocking, hilarious pre-taped sketch that is a saccharine car commercial for 90% of the sketch, only for the last few seconds to reveal that a father is dropping his daughter (Johnson) off at an ISIS recruitment center.
In her second hosting stint, Johnson appears in “Big Dumb Cups”, where she, Chloe Fineman, and Heidi Gardner extol the virtues of those massive water cups that have popped up everywhere in the last couple of years. She also mocks her famous family with a self-deprecating performance in the Please Don’t Destroy digital short, “Roast”.
Turnstile
Episode 2 Musical Guest, October 3, 2026
Turnstile will join Dakota Johnson for the second episode of the season, their first major performance since winning the Grammy for Best Metal Performance for “Birds” and Best Rock Album for Never Enough at the 69th Grammy Awards ceremony. The Baltimore rock band began as a hardcore punk band, but has since dabbled in alternative rock.
Brendan Yates, Franz Lyons, and Daniel Fang are the only members of Turnstile who have been with the band from the start, and they are joined by Pat McCrory and Meg Mills. Never Enough is the band’s fourth studio album, and their third, Glow On, received three Grammy nominations.
Shane Gillis
Episode 3 Host, October 10, 2026
Shane Gillis, the one-time potential SNL cast member, has proven there are no hard feelings after he was dropped before the 45th season. On October 10, Gillis will host the show for the third time after taking the stage for season 49, episode 12, and season 50, episode 13. Gillis also played NYC Mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa in the Mayoral debate cold open for season 51, episode 4.
As a stand-up, Gillis had two memorable opening monologues, and though there were some nerves in his first appearance, his second was markedly more confident. Gillis’ notable sketches in his first appearance include playing Donald Trump in a pre-taped sketch about “Trump Sneakers” and a live sketch where he’s Forrest Gump’s former bully at their class reunion, where he’s intimidated by his old schoolmate’s success.
In his second appearance, Gillis plays a beleaguered boyfriend struggling to take a good picture of his girlfriend at a winery, and appears in two excellent pre-tape sketches. In “CouplaBeers”, a suburban dad finds the cure for the malaise of everyday life: a massive pill bottle filled with alcohol; and in Please Don’t Destroy’s “The Sound”, he sings with Tate McRae while riding a motorscooter.
Rosalía
Episode 3 Musical Guest, October 10, 2026
Rosalía will join Gillis for SNL season 52, episode 3, bringing her brand of Spanish flamenco music to the show. Born Rosalia Vila Tobella in Catalonia, Spain, Rosalía began singing and competing on television shows from an early age. She debuted with her 2017 album, Los Ángeles, a collaborative effort with Raül Refree.
She’s risen to become one of the most successful and critically acclaimed Spanish artists of all time, breaking record after record in her home country and finding massive success internationally as well. Rosalía was nominated for Best New Artist at the 62nd Grammy Awards and won that same year for Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album, and won the same award at the 65th Grammy Awards.
Inde Navarrette
Episode 4 Host, October 31, 2026
Inde Navarrette is the pop culture darling of 2026, and if you were to place a bet on who would be hosting SNL before the information was released, Navarrette would probably have the highest odds. Her terrifying, vulnerable performance as the cursed Nikki Freeman in the horror smash hit, Obsession, has been roundly celebrated.
Since then, she’s been on a rocket ship to stardom, and it was even recently announced that she was cast to play Rogue in the upcoming X-Men reboot film for the MCU, though its planned release is still a long time off, in 2028. Navarrette’s career has really only just begun.
Beyond Obsession, she’s probably best known for live-streaming Call of Duty and as Sarah Cortex in Superman & Lois, which not enough people apparently saw. There have been several times when an SNL hosting gig has signaled the start of a major career, and this could be that time.
Gracie Abrams
Episode 4 Musical Guest, October 31, 2026
Gracie Abrams will join the stage with Navarrette for the fourth episode of season 52. The singer and songwriter has been performing since 2019, but it was her debut album in 2023, Good Riddance, that earned her wide recognition and helped garner a nomination for Best New Artist at the 66th Grammy Awards.
The following year, Abrams returned to the awards ceremony after being nominated for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for “Us” with Taylor Swift. Abrams released her third album, Daughter from Hell, in July 2026, and will begin touring for the album in December 2026, making her Saturday Night Live appearance something of a preview.
- Release Date
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October 11, 1975
- Showrunner
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Lorne Michaels
- Directors
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Dave Wilson, Don Roy King, Liz Patrick, Andy Warhol, Linda Lee Cadwell, Matthew Meshekoff, Paul Miller, Robert Altman, Robert Smigel
- Writers
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Will Forte, Bill Hader, Tina Fey, Kristen Wiig, Chris Parnell, Asa Taccone, John Lutz, Tom Schiller, Simon Rich, Michael Patrick O’Brien, Nicki Minaj, Herbert Sargent, Matt Piedmont, John Solomon, Chris Kelly, Alan Zweibel, Kent Sublette, Ari Katcher, Marika Sawyer, Sarah Schnedier, Scott Jung, Justin Franks, Jerrod Bettis, Rhiannon Bryan