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SNL Season 51 Returns Jan. 17th with Finn Wolfhard, A$AP Rocky

NBC's Saturday Night Live returns on January 17th, 2026, with SNL host Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things 5) and musical guest A$AP Rocky. 

NBC's Saturday Night Live isn't making us wait too long for Season 51 to return, announcing the return intel during tonight's year-end show with host Ariana Grande and musical guest Cher. We can mark down January 17th, 2026, as the SNL return date, with host Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things 5) and musical guest A$AP Rocky.

First joining SNL as a writer in 2018, SNL Star Bowen Yang would become a featured player during Season 45 and a full cast member with Season 47. Though not exactly the norm, Yang joins SNL alums Cecily Strong, Molly Shannon, Dana Carvey, Eddie Murphy, and others when it comes to exiting the long-running sketch comedy and music series early. Here's a look at Yang's post from earlier today, confirming his exit. Following that, we have th complete text of his message, where he rolls out a number of people to thank, and a look back at his on-stage promos with Grande and Cher:

i loved working at SNL, and most of all i loved the people. i was there at a time when many things in the world started to seem futile, but working at 30 rock taught me the value in showing up anyway when people make it worthwhile.

i'm grateful for every minute of my time there. i learned about myself (bad with wigs). i learned about others (generous, vulnerable, hot). i learned that human error can be nothing but correct. i learned that comedy is mostly logistics and that it will usually fail until it doesn't, which is the besssst.

thank you to every single person who showed up there: friends and coworkers and audiences and hosts. thank you celeste, sudi, will, alison, julio, fran, drez, bulla, marty, john, ben, jimmy, ceara, deetch, jake, asha, jack, auguste, tucker, kent, streeter, james, alex, jasmine, gary, and billy for writing with me. thank you to every cast member for making me laugh and cry. to liz and don. tom, jodi, louie, eamon. gena, chris, eddie. the crews, the pages. and to audrey, jameson, cassandra and chris for the fastest, funnest quick-changes in all of showbiz. thank you to ari for sending me off in the dreamiest way i could imagine.

thank you to lorne for the job. for the standard. and for bringing everyone at work together. they all care deeply about people in the room, any room, enjoying themselves. i can't believe i was ever included in that.

the show doesn't go on because it's ready, but shiiiiit, i hope i am. ❤️🌃⌛️🎥

The Season 51 cast includes Michael Che, Mikey Day, Andrew Dismukes, Chloe Fineman, Marcello Hernandez, James Austin Johnson, Colin Jost, Sarah Sherman, Kenan Thompson, and Bowen Yang, along with current featured players Ashley Padilla and Jane Wickline. Joining them are newcomers Ben Marshall, Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane, Kam Patterson, and Veronika Slowikowska.

New writers for this season include actor-writer Jack Bensinger (Rap World), stand-up comedian Jo Sunday (Just for Laughs), comic Maddie Wiener (The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon), actor and writer Rachel Pegram (Harley Quinn), writer-comedian Claire McFadden (Second City), Maxwell Gay (The Harvard Lampoon), and Tucker Flodman (The Harvard Lampoon). NBC's Saturday Night Live premiered on Oct. 11, 1975, and broadcasts live from NBC's famed Studio 8H in New York City's Rockefeller Center. The program is a production of Broadway Video in association with SNL Studios. Lorne Michaels is the executive producer.

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