As Saturday Night Live hits the halfway point of its four-month summer hiatus, NBC has officially announced the premiere date for the show’s 51st season: October 4, 2025.
Outside of the show’s strike-delayed return in 2023, this marks the latest fall premiere for SNL since 2003, when Season 29 also kicked off on October 4.
This year’s second episode, scheduled for October 11, will air exactly 50 years to the night since the show’s original debut on October 11, 1975. The inaugural episode, hosted by George Carlin, introduced audiences to the now-iconic sketch format and original cast known as the “Not Ready for Prime Time Players.” While last season was packed with tributes leading up to the milestone, it’s not clear whether the show will mark its true 50th anniversary on air.
LateNighter has learned that the first half of the season, running through the midseason holiday break, will consist of three blocks of three consecutive episodes each. The show will take scheduled breaks on October 25 and November 22 & November 29. This season’s Christmas episode—typically a festive, star-studded affair—is slated for December 20. The December episode often draws some of the show’s highest ratings of the year
If tradition holds, the next few weeks could bring news of cast departures, as the show typically signs contract renewals with most returning cast members by August 1.
August has also historically been the month for in-studio auditions as Lorne Michaels and his team scout for new featured players. Official announcements regarding the show’s cast—both returning and new—usually drop in mid-to-late September, followed by word of the season’s first host(s).
For those who don’t know, October 4 is also the 50th Anniversary of the original date that “NBC’s Saturday Night” was set to premiere, but the show wasn’t quite ready yet. NBC asked Tom Snyder to do a 90-minute weekend edition of the “Tomorrow” show to fill out the gap in the schedule. The show mostly consisted of an interview with Jerry Lewis, but near the end of the show Tom had a chat with Lorne Michaels and the “Not Ready for Prime Time Players”, effectively introducing them to the TV viewing public as a group for the first time.
That interview was later recreated in the 2024 Jason Reitman movie “Saturday Night” (with Cagney Noland playing Snyder), though it’s only briefly seen in the monitors of the control room and in the end credits.
According to its sister network, the NBC late-night programs of Fallon, Seth Meyers, and Saturday Night Live is losing NBC $100 million per year.
How lcan NBC subsidize these large losses for much longer?
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/26/cbs-canceling-colbert-raises-late-night-questions.html
Lovely photo of everyone all spiffed up!
And a welcome relief to have Silverman not clad as a scene-hogging colorblind four year old.
Another season where that scumbag Lorne Micheals refuses to book DEF LEPPARD.
It would be great if Stephen Colbert were the host of the ‘October 4 show.