Following a landmark year in the highly influential, long-running comedy program, Saturday Night Live Season 51 is now on its way, set for an October 4th date on the 2025 TV premiere schedule. SNL Season 50 proved to be a wonderful celebration of the series’ legacy, from the incredible Homecoming Concert to the four-part SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night docuseries (which provided the backstory of “The Cowbell Sketch”), only making lifelong fans like me excited to see who is stopping by Studio 8H next.
As of July 2025, none of the upcoming SNL Season 51 hosts and musical guests have been announced. Furthermore, we are not even sure exactly what the SNL Season 51 cast is going to look like. However, there is still plenty about the beloved sketch comedy series we can talk about as we wait.
THE SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE SEASON 51 CAST
For Season 50, Saturday Night Live promoted Marcello Hernandez, Michael Longfellow, and Devon Walker to series regulars after spending two seasons each as featured cast members. The line-up also gained three new players who immediately showed a lot of promise, including former Groundlings performer Ashley Padilla, Lebanese-American comic Emil Wakim, and TikTok star Jane Wickline, who made a hilarious duo with Hernandez.
As of July 2025, we cannot confirm if Padilla, Wakim, and Wickline will be promoted to repertory players this year (and they will have to wait to find out, too) or what new faces will appear in the SNL Season 51 cast. However, now is when Lorne Michaels and co. conduct auditions to determine who could be the next comedy legend to come from Studio 8H, and a report by Deadline suggests they are looking for "character-driven performers" in lieu of stand-ups. Until then, here is what the ensemble looked like in Season 50, with the featured players at the bottom.
- Michael Che
- Mikey Day
- Andrew Dismukes
- Chloe Fineman
- Heidi Gardner
- Marcello Hernandez
- James Austin Johnson
- Colin Jost
- Michael Longfellow
- Ego Nwodim
- Sarah Sherman
- Kenan Thompson
- Devon Walker
- Bowen Yang
- Ashley Padilla
- Emil Wakim
- Jane Wickline
SNL Cast Members Not Returning After Season 50
The Saturday Night Live cast came back for Season 50 without a few valuable members, namely Punkie Johnson, who announced her exit during a stand-up set; Molly Kearney, who was the show’s first non-binary cast member; and Chloe Troast, who had only lasted one season at Studio 8H. The question of who will or will not return for SNL Season 51 has been a major topic of discussion among fans since the show began its summer hiatus, especially after the longest-serving SNL star, Kenan Thompson, teased “a lot of change next year.”
The former All That star has flirted with the idea of never leaving the show, or at least sticking around for the next big milestone of 30 seasons, but we will have to see. Some have speculated that Colin Jost may be leaving the Weekend Update desk, while Mikey Day intends to stay on SNL for as long as possible. That is as far as we know, for now.
Apparently, we can also expect to see Lorne Michaels continuing to steer the ship for SNL Season 51. However, Studio 8H vet Molly Shannon believes that Kenan Thompson would make a great replacement in the event that the EP decides to pass the torch. I can’t deny how enticing that idea sounds, but what I really can’t wait to find out is who will be headlining the next episodes, so check back for updates!
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