Nothing lasts forever, but at 51 seasons and counting, NBC’s Saturday Night Live is trying its very best to prove that old adage wrong. You gotta think that SNL will eventually suffer the same fate as almost every other TV show — cancellation — but it’s tough to imagine it going anywhere in the near future. Though anything is possible, I guess, if the Trump administration decides to continue its crackdown on humor that the president doesn’t enjoy.
But hopefully that won’t happen, because SNL often helps us stay sane by making light of tumultuous current events — and current events continue to be extremely tumultuous in 2025. You could say that SNL provides a public service in that regard.
Is there a new SNL episode on Saturday, Nov. 22?
After three straight weeks of episodes, SNL is now on hiatus for the rest of the month. The sketch comedy series will be back with a new episode on Dec. 6, when it’ll be hosted by Melissa McCarthy, with Dijon as the musical guest. This will be McCarthy’s sixth turn as host, though she also made a number of other appearances on the series, like when she played Sean Spicer, the first of Trump’s many contentious White House press secretaries, several times in early 2017.
Upcoming SNL hosts and musical guests
SNL will wrap up 2025 with three episodes in December. Melissa McCarthy will host on Dec. 6, while Dijon provide the musical performance. Then, the Dec. 13 episode will be hosted by The History of Sound star Josh O’Connor, while Lily Allen continues her post-divorce liberation tour as the musical guest — a role she previously filled once, way back in 2007. Finally on Dec. 20, Ariana Grande will host while Cher will be the musical guest. You have to think we’ll get a duet out of that one. Ariana Grande has hosted twice before, and been the musical guest three times. Cher has, somehow, only been the SNL musical guest once before, back in 1987, though she did perform in the SNL50 Homecoming Concert this past February.
Last time on SNL
Glen Powell hosted SNL on Nov. 15, and the high point of the episode might have been when SNL
Cast changes for SNL Season 51
As is the case every summer, SNL is experiencing a bit of a cast shakeup, with four cast members exiting the series and five new ones being added. The most significant cast members leaving SNL are Heidi Gardner, who’s been on the show for eight years, and Ego Nwodim, who just finished her seventh season. Behind her are Devon Walker and Michael Longfellow, who’d been cast members for three seasons, and Emil Wakim, who had only just been added to the cast for Season 50.
There’s also been a separate shakeup with Please Don’t Destroy, the comedy trio on the SNL writing staff who’ve been making viral digital shorts on the show for a few years now. Ben Marshall is being added to the cast as a featured player, Martin Herlihy is staying on the writing staff, and John Higgins is leaving the show entirely. This won’t mark the end of them as a group, but it doesn’t seem too likely that we’ll see many of their digital shorts in Season 51.
Alongside Marshall, there are four other new featured cast members: Veronika Slowikowski, Jeremy Culhane, Tommy Brennan, and Kam Patterson. Slowikowski is a popular comedian on TikTok who also works fairly regularly as a TV guest actor on shows like What We Do In the Shadows and Tires, Culhane is best known for his work in online sketches and at Upright Citizens Brigade in Los Angeles, and Brennan is a relative unknown who had a bit of a breakout moment in June when he did a stand-up routine on The Tonight Show. Patterson, meanwhile, has already proven to be a controversial pick, since he’s mainly known for being a guest on right-wing edgelord Tony Hinchcliffe’s podcast.
It’s worth noting that Nwodim, unlike the other cast departures, announced her exit only after the new cast members had been revealed — just when it seemed as though the cast was set for the new season, she dropped the bombshell news. Nothing Nwodim has said since announcing her exit indicates there was anything unusual about her circumstance, but the timing of it was pretty surprising.
If there’s any SNL cast member you’re wondering about who wasn’t mentioned in this section, it’s because they’ll be back for Season 51. Yes, that means Michael Che and Colin Jost are back on the Weekend Update desk, James Austin Johnson will once again play Donald Trump, and Kenan Thompson is coming back for his 23rd season — he’s been around for nearly half of the entire run of this series.
How to rewatch past SNL episodes, including any Season 51 episodes you missed
If watching a new SNL a hankering to revisit some classic old skits, you can check out most past episodes of SNL on NBCUniversal’s streaming service, Peacock. You can even stream new episodes live when they air, without any need for an additional TV provider login. So Peacock is your one-stop shop for SNL.
Disclaimer: When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
