‘SNL’ Season 52 Reveals Its First Hosts, and Jalen Brunson Is Making History
‘Saturday Night Live’ is coming back with a lineup that already has plenty of surprises. NBC has revealed the first four hosts for Season 52, and the biggest shock is waiting right at the start. New York Knicks star Jalen Brunson will host the season premiere on September 26, bringing a very different kind of energy to Studio 8H.
Brunson has never hosted ‘SNL’ before, which makes his selection stand out even more. The NBA star is coming off a massive summer with the Knicks, helping the team win its first NBA championship in more than 50 years. Brunson was also named MVP of the 2026 NBA Finals. According to the announcement, he will become the first athlete to host the show since Travis Kelce did it in 2023 and the first active NBA player to take the job since LeBron James in 2007.
The premiere will also feature KATSEYE as the musical guest. The K-pop group will be making its ‘SNL’ debut, so both sides of the episode will feature first-time appearances. That gives NBC a pretty unusual way to open the new season, especially with Brunson coming to the show at the height of his basketball career.
The next episode, set for October 3, goes in a very different direction. Dakota Johnson is returning to host for the third time. Her appearance is scheduled just one day after the theatrical release of her new movie ‘Verity,’ giving the actress a chance to promote the film while returning to a show she already knows well. Turnstile will join her as musical guest, marking the band’s first ‘SNL’ appearance.
After that comes Shane Gillis on October 10. Gillis is also becoming a familiar face at this point, as this will be his third time hosting the NBC comedy series. He will be joined by Rosalía, who is returning as musical guest after previously appearing on the show. Gillis also has plenty going on outside of ‘SNL,’ with his Netflix comedy ‘Tires’ recently receiving a fourth-season renewal.
NBC has also announced Inde Navarrette as another upcoming host. Unlike Brunson, Johnson and Gillis, Navarrette will be taking on the job for the first time. She has been building a bigger profile through her recent work and is also set to play Rogue in Marvel Studios’ upcoming ‘X-Men’ movie. Her episode will feature Gracie Abrams as musical guest, giving Abrams another chance to perform on the show.
Abrams has had a busy year of her own. Her third studio album, ‘Daughter from Hell,’ arrived in July, and she is now touring behind it with her Look at My Life Tour. Her return as musical guest adds another major music name to what is already a varied early lineup.
The first group of Season 52 hosts also comes at a time when ‘SNL’ is dealing with some cast changes. Chloe Fineman announced in July that she was leaving after seven seasons. Writer and occasional performer Martin Herlihy also departed after five seasons. Still, the overall cast is expected to look fairly familiar when the new season begins.
The early lineup shows that NBC is not sticking to one type of celebrity. Brunson brings the world of basketball, Johnson arrives with another movie release, Gillis represents stand-up comedy, and Navarrette gives the show a rising young star. The musical guests are just as varied, moving from K-pop with KATSEYE to Turnstile’s punk sound and Rosalía and Abrams’ pop music.
The information about the first four episodes was announced by NBC as the network begins promoting the new season. More names are expected to be added as the September premiere gets closer.
‘SNL’ Season 52 will officially begin on Saturday, September 26, at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC. Episodes will also be available to stream the following day on Peacock. If Brunson can handle the pressure of an NBA Finals Game 7, Studio 8H should be an interesting new challenge.
What do you think will be the biggest surprise of ‘SNL’ Season 52?
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