Is There a New Episode of Saturday Night Live This Week?

Nothing lasts forever, but at 51 seasons and counting, NBC's Saturday Night Live is trying its very best to prove that old adage wrong. You gotta think that SNL will eventually suffer the same fate as almost every other TV show — cancellation — but it's tough to imagine it going anywhere in the near future. Though anything is possible, I guess, if the Trump administration decides to resume its crackdown on humor that the president doesn't enjoy.

But hopefully that won't happen, because SNL often helps us stay sane by making light of tumultuous current events — and current events are somehow more tumultuous than ever at the start of 2026. It's a good thing that the sketch comedy series continues to provide this public service for us during these trying times.

Is there a new SNL episode on Saturday, Feb. 21?

After starting the calendar year with three episodes in a row, SNL is on hiatus this week. The long-running sketch comedy series will return on Feb. 28, when Heated Rivalry star Connor Storrie will host for the first time, alongside musical guest Mumford & Sons, which is performing on SNL for the fourth time.

Upcoming SNL hosts and musical guests 

When SNL returns on Feb. 28 with Connor Storrie and Mumford & Sons, it'll be the first of three new episodes. Then, on Mar. 7, Ryan Gosling will host for the fourth time, and Gorillaz will somehow be making their SNL debut as the musical guests. The third episode in this run will take place on Mar. 14, but NBC hasn't yet announced the host or musical performance for that episode. SNL basically never drops a TBD for the host in a batch of episodes like this, so it's likely either that whoever they had planned fell through, they have some kind of surprise in store for that one, or they just haven't gotten their stuff together yet.

Last time on SNL

The most recent SNL took place on Jan. 31 with Alexander Skarsgard as the host. Perhaps the biggest highlight of the evening was a sketch in which cast member Ashley Padilla played a MAGA mom who has finally discovered how awful Donald Trump is. But there's a caveat: she doesn't want her kids to be happy about it. "If I hear a single 'I told you so,' I will go see the Melania movie tonight!" Padilla shouts at them when they react excitedly. Check it out below.

Cast changes for SNL Season 51

The SNL Christmas episode also came with a huge surprise: it was the final episode for long-time cast member Bowen Yang. The episode included what amounted to a goodbye sketch for Yang, who'd been on the show since 2019. In the sketch, Yang plays an elderly eggnog server at the Delta lounge in New York's JFK airport who's working his last shift — obviously, the whole thing was a metaphor for Yang's new career move in real life. It's not the funniest sketch, but it's a lot more heartwarming than SNL usually gets. Check it out.

Yang's exit followed some major shakeups that came during the offseason, when Heidi Gardner, who'd been on the show for eight years, and Ego Nwodim, who'd just finished her seventh season, both left before Season 51 began. Three other main cast members also exited the series: Devon Walker and Michael Longfellow, who'd been cast members for three seasons, and Emil Wakim, who had only just been added to the cast for Season 50.

There was also a separate shakeup with Please Don't Destroy, the comedy trio on the SNL writing staff who've been making viral digital shorts on the show for a few years now. Ben Marshall was added to the cast as a featured player, Martin Herlihy stayed on the writing staff, and John Higgins left the show entirely. This won't mark the end of them as a group, but it doesn't seem too likely that we'll see many of their digital shorts in Season 51.

Alongside Marshall, there are four other new featured cast members in Season 51: Veronika Slowikowski, Jeremy Culhane, Tommy Brennan, and Kam Patterson. Slowikowski is a popular comedian on TikTok who also works fairly regularly as a TV guest actor on shows like What We Do In the Shadows and Tires, Culhane is best known for his work in online sketches and at Upright Citizens Brigade in Los Angeles, and Brennan is a relative unknown who had a bit of a breakout moment in June when he did a stand-up routine on The Tonight Show. Patterson, meanwhile, has already proven to be a controversial pick, since he's mainly known for being a guest on right-wing edgelord Tony Hinchcliffe's podcast. 

It's worth noting that Nwodim, unlike the other cast departures, announced her exit only after the new cast members had been revealed — just when it seemed as though the cast was set for the new season, she dropped the bombshell news. Nothing Nwodim has said since announcing her exit indicates there was anything unusual about her circumstance, but the timing of it was pretty surprising.

If there's any SNL cast member you're wondering about who wasn't mentioned in this section, it's because they'll be back for Season 51. Yes, that means Michael Che and Colin Jost are back on the Weekend Update desk, James Austin Johnson will once again play Donald Trump, and Kenan Thompson is coming back for his 23rd season — he's been around for nearly half of the entire run of this series. 

How to rewatch past SNL episodes, including any Season 51 episodes you missed

If watching a new SNL a hankering to revisit some classic old skits, you can check out most past episodes of SNL on NBCUniversal's streaming service, Peacock. You can even stream new episodes live when they air, without any need for an additional TV provider login. So Peacock is your one-stop shop for SNL.

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