Is Saturday Night Live New Tonight?

Saturday Night Live is back for another go-around, hosting the second new episode of Season 49 tonight, October 21st. For this season’s sophomore outing, Lorne Michaels and team have enlisted the help of international music sensation Bad Bunny to serve as both host and musical guest. While it will be the singer’s second time as musical guest (third if you count a 2020 cameo), he’s making his hosting debut tonight.

As the SAG-AFTRA strike is very much still in affect, the live sketch comedy is continuing to lean on non-acting guests to fill the role of host throughout the earliest parts of the season. In one major example, the show is having stand-up comedian Nate Bargatze host next weekend’s episode, despite having no major acting credits on his resume. Though Bad Bunny has appeared in films, he’s primarily considered a musician while Pete Davidson, like Bargatze, also got his start in stand-up.

After tonight’s episode and the one next weekend on October 28th, new other episodes have been announced for this season. It’s unclear if SNL plans to take a week or two off for a quick hiatus after the Halloween episode later this month or the sketch comedy will go straight through until its holiday break. The show typically takes a week off after its third of fourth episode before coming back and to air five or six new episodes before a month-long holiday break.

Who is in the Saturday Night Live cast?

Cast members for Saturday Night Live season 49 include almost the entire cast from season 48 of SNL. Returning stars include Michael Che, Mikey Day, Andrew Dismukes, Chloe Fineman, Heidi Gardner, James Austin Johnson, Punkie Johnson, Colin Jost, Ego Nwodim, Sarah Sherman, Kenan Thompson, and Bowen Yang. Featured players that are part of the cast include returning stars Marcello Hernandez, Molly Kearney, Michael Longfellow, and Devon Walker, plus the show’s only fully new cast member for the year, newcomer Chloe Troast. The comedy troupe Please Don’t Destroy, made up of Ben Marshall, John Higgins, and Martin Herlihy, are also a recurring part of the series. 

New Saturday Night Live Hosts

With the SAG-AFTRA Strike still without a resolution, Saturday Night Live is unable to tap actors to host new episodes since previously they would only appear on the series to promote some new work (prohibited by the rules of the SAG-AFTRA strike). As a result comedians and musicians have been the only hosts confirmed for Saturday Night Live season 49 with Pete Davidson, Bad Bunny, and Nate Bargatze taking the spotlight for the first three episodes.

Saturday Night Live Season 49 is ongoing now with new episodes airing on both NBC and Peacock, starting Saturdays at 11:30 PM ET. All 48  seasons of Saturday Night Live are also now streaming on Peacock.