“Saturday Night Live” is returning for its 52nd season, and it will be a star-studded affair.
The sketch show announced that the season premiere, set to air on Sept. 26, will be hosted by Jalen Brunson, who recently led the New York Knicks to their first NBA Championship in 53 years, with music from popular K-pop group Katseye. Both Brunson and Katseye will be making their “SNL” debut.
The Oct. 3 episode will be headlined by Dakota Johnson and hardcore rock band Turnstile. Johnson, whose film “Verity” hits theaters on Oct. 2, returns to “SNL” for the third time, while Turnstile makes their “SNL” debut amid their Never Enough Tour Pt. 2.
Shane Gillis will host “SNL” for the third time on Oct. 10 with Rosalía as musical guest. Gillis broke the Guinness World Record for largest stand-up audience this summer and recently released Season 3 of his Netflix show “Tires,” while Rosalía will wrap up her Lux world tour the month before her second time at “SNL.”
Lastly — and perhaps most excitingly — this year’s Halloween episode will be hosted by Inde Navarette, the breakout star of the hit horror film “Obsession.” She will be joined on Oct. 31 by musical guest Gracie Abrams, who returns to “SNL” for the second time after releasing the album “Daughter From Hell” earlier this year.
Offseason news from “SNL” has been quiet, with the biggest update being that Chloe Fineman, who has been a player on the show since 2019, has departed after seven seasons. Martin Herlihy, who previously appeared on-screen for four seasons as a member of Please Don’t Destroy and worked in the writers room on Season 51, has also exited the show.
Across the pond, “Saturday Night Live UK” beat the American version in announcing its premiere date plan for its second season, setting Jeff Goldblum and CMAT as host and musical guest for its Sept. 12 premiere. The series is set to bring back its full cast from the first season, and will run for 12 episodes.
“SNL” Season 51 hosts included Will Ferrell, Bad Bunny, Matt Damon, Connor Storrie and many more, with musical guests that included Doja Cat, Sombr, Role Model and Cher. Some celebs did double duty as well, with Harry Styles, Sabrina Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo all serving as both host and musical guest.
Variety spoke with some of the Season 51 newcomers at the end of season and asked them what their goals were for their upcoming sophomore year.
“The senior people are so good at capturing their own voice in sketch, like Andrew [Dismukes] and James [Austin Johnson],” Jeremy Culhane said. “That’s something I’d be happy to get better at.”
“And working together,” Veronika Slowikowski added. “This year, we were all trying to get our own thing on, and rightfully so. Next year, I’d like to find characters together.”

Kim Zolciak’s 15-year-old son, Kroy “KJ” Biermann Jr., has made a major move in his sexual assault case. His legal team wants the case transferred to the juvenile court. The request comes after a Georgia grand jury indicted him on seven felony charges. KJ remains in custody as his case moves forward.
KJ Biermann seeks juvenile court after being indicted on seven felony charges
According to Page Six, KJ’s lawyer Jason Sheffield filed a motion Tuesday to transfer the case to juvenile court. The motion also asks for confidentiality proceedings. Sheffield said the state intends to try KJ as an adult. He said the defense wants KJ “to be tried as a juvenile.”
Sheffield also said the defense expects to enter not guilty pleas at KJ’s Oct. 14 arraignment. “We are expecting to enter not guilty pleas to all charges,” he told the outlet. KJ faces seven felony charges, including aggravated child molestation, aggravated sodomy and aggravated sexual battery. He also faces three counts of sexual battery against a child under 16 and false imprisonment.
KJ’s case stems from an alleged April 23 incident involving a female classmate. She charged him with sexual assault in a gym in Alpharetta, Georgia. KJ was arrested on Aug. 17 and remains at Atlanta’s Metro Regional Youth Detention Center. His bond hearing is now scheduled for Sept. 11, according to Fulton County court records.
Sheffield criticized the amount of time KJ has spent in detention while awaiting a bond hearing. “It is difficult to comprehend that a 14- or 15-year-old child can be held in detention for a month or longer simply waiting for a bond hearing,” he told Page Six. He said the detention resulted from the detective’s decision to arrest KJ on serious charges. The defense now hopes the court will move the case into the juvenile system.

ABC clarifies the facts amid reports that they plan to end “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” after the current season.
A spokesperson for ABC Entertainment told Us Weekly that “This information was inaccurate – any reports regarding the future of this show are at this time purely speculation.”
After multiple outlets claimed that Kimmel’s 24th-season late night program would end after the premiere of ABC’s Tuesday’s show, ABC clarified its position.
After a morbid joke about the first lady, Trump calls for ABC to terminate Jimmy Kimmel, again
According to TMZ, Kimmel has been shopping for other projects in recent months, such as a podcast, along with other shows. This news follows an interview Kimmel’s spouse, Molly McNearney gave on Dax Shepard’s “Armchair Expert” where she spoke about her husband’s eventual retirement.
McNearney’s response to the question “What do you think about it?” was: “It appeals to my nervous system for the family.”
She continued, “It’s like Jimmy is holding a flashlight in his other hand while holding a fly-rod in one.” “I feel like Jimmy deserves to be out on the river, relaxing. But I want him to continue fighting.” “I feel this desire not to quit, because what he is doing right now I believe is extremely important.”
Jimmy Kimmel Live! debuted in January 2003. Since then, it has broadcast over 4,000 episodes. Kimmel’s Show was pulled abruptly from airwaves almost a year ago. Executives said it would “preempt indefinitely”. This happened because of the host’s comments about the dialogue sparked by the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Kirk, a political activist of the right, was fatally shot at Utah Valley University on September 10 as part his American Comeback Tour. Kirk was shot in the neck during an outdoor event at the Orem campus, Utah. He was taken to hospital where, a few minutes later, he died.
Kimmel’s monologue after the tragic event was critical of the MAGA movement and President Trump for blaming Kirk’s demise on “radical left”.
Kimmel apologized for the remarks he made. He became emotional at one stage and said, “It wasn’t my intention to lighten up a murder.”

Martin Herlihy is departing NBC’s Saturday Night Live after a five-season stint as a writer and performer.
Herlihy joined SNL in 2021 as part of the Please Don’t Destroy comedy troupe alongside fellow members Ben Marshall and John Higgins. After four seasons of making videos for the late-night sketch program, the trio’s joint tenure on SNL came to an end a year ago when Marshall was promoted to a cast member and Higgins left to pursue a career as an actor.
At the time, Herlihy opted to stay on as a writer, which he did for the most recent 51st season while also making occasional appearanes in sketches.
Marshall is expected to continue as a featured player in Season 52 while Higgins has been booking acting gigs, including recurring roles on the upcoming second seasons of ABC’s Scrubs and Apple TV’s Stick.
Herlihy’s father, Tim Herlihy, had a similar length stay as a writer on SNL in the 1990s before leaving to focus on feature writing in collaboration with fellow SNL alum Adam Sandler.
Chloe Fineman is the only SNL cast member confirmed to be leaving after Season 51. Following a string of auditions over the summer, the show is expected to lock in its troupe for the upcoming season in the next week or so ahead of the Sept. 26 premiere.
The exit was first reported by LateNighter.

Hollywood’s obsession for Silicon Valley will soon reach fever pitch as four major movies are set to tackle controversial tech moguls.
Then there’s the fact that all the films have important dates in October. This results in an extraordinary theme pile-up, as California industries take on each other.
Three of these projects all released teaser trailers within 48-hours of one another earlier this week.
Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning stars Jeremy Strong as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, in a follow-up (or companion piece, as Sony insists it be called) to The Social Network. The film opens in theaters on October 9.
Andrew Garfield plays OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in Luca Guadagnino’s Artificial during a 5-day leadership crisis, when Altman is fired then reinstated to his position as CEO. The Neon movie premieres Oct. 5, at the New York Film Festival (and will be released in limited quantities on December 25).
There are also two documentaries of epic length.
Alex Gibney’s dissection of Tesla and SpaceX tycoon Elon Musk is titled Musk. It runs for nearly four hours, and will be released on select screens from Bleecker St., after its premiere at Venice, Tuesday, Oct. 16.
You Can See Everything by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, the A24 surprise project dropped in Telluride and follows Theranos’ founder Elizabeth Holmes as she prepares to enter federal prison. This three-hour movie will also be released in cinemas on October 16.
Should we begin naming release dates now that are head to head? ElonBeth? MuskEverything? Elon Musk? Perhaps not).
Silicon Valley executives are egoists, who talk in grandiose words, claim they help humanity but value power and ambition over safety and ethics, with potential catastrophic results.
If you look at November’s projects, we have another one: Graham Moore’s Netflix series The Altruists. It follows the fall of the crypto exchange FTX, and Anthony Boyle stars as Sam Bankman Fried, the co-founder, and Julia Garner plays Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison.
Dramas are being viewed with some skepticism about whether they will be a hit. The Social Reckoning Trailer has been compared to its much-loved precursor The Social Network. Amazon MGM dropped Artificial due to apparent conflicts of interest, and several studios passed before Neon acquired it. This has caused some industry insiders speculate that the film may be lacking. It’s too soon to draw any conclusions. Neither film has even been screened in front of a festival crowd.
However, the initial buzz is astronomical. Both You Can See Everything and Musk have received positive reviews at the respective festivals and are both currently rated 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. The Hollywood Reporter reviewed Musk and left their critic in “outrage” for “225 minutes”. Our review of You Can See Everything described it as “fascinatingly slick and dizzyingly brilliant.” The brilliant trailer for You Can See Everything generated immense interest and was immediately meme-able.
Silicon Valley has pledged to disrupt Hollywood for years (and, in some cases, succeeded). With this strange coincidence of timing, Hollywood is now returning the favor.
Here are trailers of all four films.