Saturday Night Live closes out its first stretch of Season 52 this weekend with Shane Gillis back for his third hosting appearance and Rosalía making her second visit as musical guest.
Gillis returns to the show on the heels of a summer tour that included a stop at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field, where he set two Guinness World Records for attendance, while Rosalía arrives fresh off her Lux world tour.
With SNL heading into a two-week break afterward, this weekend gives us one more look at the new season—and one more chance for its newest performers to make their mark—before the show returns on Halloween.
Here are five storylines we’ll be tracking Saturday night:
Third Time’s the Charm?
Gillis may be one of the country’s top comics, but he’s had an oddly tough time delivering jokes to the crowd inside Studio 8H, with both of his first two SNL monologues developing a similar, slightly uncomfortable rhythm: a joke, a muted response, then an acknowledgment that things weren’t going particularly well.
During his first appearance, he even commented on being able to see audience members not enjoying the set.
The result is an unusual dynamic, with viewers at home left to listen almost as closely to the room as they are to him. Instead of simply following the material, we’re waiting to hear whether the next joke gets the audience back.
The question Saturday is whether the pattern repeats itself. A strong monologue would give Gillis’ third episode something his first two lacked: an opening that feels confident all the way through.
No Introduction Needed
Two of SNL’s newer cast members enter this week with an unusual advantage: they’ve already worked in Shane Gillis’ orbit.
Veronika Slowikowska has appeared alongside Gillis on his Netflix series Tires, while Kam Patterson has shared the Kill Tony stage with him. Neither was in the SNL cast the last time Gillis hosted, in Season 50.
Slowikowska and Gillis have already put that familiarity to work in this week’s promos. Could it carry over into the show itself—and will Patterson get his own chance to work opposite a host who already knows what he does?
For two featured players still establishing themselves at SNL, Gillis is about as familiar a host as they could ask for.
Seeing Double
Donald Trump has been a regular presence on the campaign trail ahead of next month’s midterms. This week, SNL has an unusual way to cover him: there are two Trumps in the building.
James Austin Johnson has owned the role on SNL since 2021, while Gillis is well known for having his own Trump impression. The two even came face-to-face in Season 49’s “Trump Sneakers,” which saw Gillis acquire Trump-like powers from a pair of gold sneakers before encountering Johnson’s version on a basketball court.
Two years later, Trump’s ubiquity offers an obvious excuse for a rematch. Competing rallies, dueling speeches, two Trumps somehow ending up in the same place—there are plenty of ways to get beyond the standard campaign-stop parody.
With two capable Trump impersonators in the building, why settle for one?
The ‘Update’ Test
This year’s new featured players Grace Reiter and Saidah Belo-Osagie enter their third episode Saturday still waiting for the kind of extended showcase that can introduce a new cast member to the audience in a hurry.
As LateNighter’s Mike Murray noted earlier this week in his Dakota Johnson Screen Time Report, recent featured players Tommy Brennan, Kam Patterson, Jane Wickline, Devon Walker, Marcello Hernández, and Michael Longfellow all made their first “Weekend Update” appearances within their first three episodes.
That puts Reiter and Belo-Osagie at an interesting point on the rookie calendar. Neither needs a breakout three episodes into her SNL career, but with the show about to disappear for two weeks, a few uninterrupted minutes behind the “Update” desk could tell us a lot.
If either rookie suddenly appears beside Colin Jost or Michael Che Saturday night, recent history says she’ll be right on schedule.
Rosalía’s Next Stage
It’s Rosalía’s second time as musical guest—and her third time appearing on SNL’s music stage, after joining Bad Bunny to perform their collaboration “La Noche de Anoche” in 2021. That would seem to put her somewhat on schedule for a sketch cameo debut.
A sketch appearance would also make sense for a performer whose recent concerts have emphasized theatricality as much as music. In fact, one SNL cast member has some direct experience: Marcello Hernández joined Rosalía onstage in June during her Lux tour, taking part in the show’s recurring confessional-style bit.
Could SNL borrow that setup? Hernández could have another confession to make, or the cast could supply a procession of increasingly inappropriate guests while Rosalía tries to maintain the atmosphere of her show. Even without directly revisiting the tour bit, their existing rapport gives the writers a reason to pair them in something new.
This weekend’s Saturday Night Live airs Saturday, October 10 at 11:30 p.m. ET / 8:30 p.m. PT on NBC and Peacock.
Join us at LateNighter.com immediately after for the Saturday Night Network’s live after-show, where SNL experts and superfans share their hot takes on the night’s best and worst moments.
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