Season 51 resumes on Jan. 17 after a winter hiatus.

SNL reveals first host and musical guest of 2026, including a *Stranger Things *star

Season 51 resumes on Jan. 17 after a winter hiatus.

By Jillian Sederholm

Jillian Sederholm

Jillian Sederholm is news director at *. *She has worked at EW for more than eight years. Jillian has previously worked as a reporter, social media editor, and homepage producer at NBC News, Digital First Media, Newsday, and *Random Lengths News.*

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December 21, 2025 12:08 a.m. ET

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Finn Wolfhard, Caleb McLaughlin, Natalia Dyer, Joe Keery, Charlie Heaton, and Gaten Matarazzo in 'Stranger Things 5'. Credit:

Courtesy of Netflix

- *Saturday Night Live *returns from winter hiatus on Jan. 17.

- *Stranger Things *star Finn Wolfhard will kick off the first new episode of the year.

- Season 51 will be missing a longtime cast member after Bowen Yang's exit in December.

*Saturday Night Live* is turning season 51 Upside Down when it returns from its winter hiatus in January with a* Stranger Things* star as the year's first host.

The legendary NBC sketch comedy show announced during tonight's show that season 51 will resume on Saturday, Jan. 17 with host Finn Wolfhard and musical guest A$AP Rocky.

Aside from fighting Vecna on the final season of the Netflix hit, Wolfhard recently appeared in Jason Reitman's *SNL *biopic *Saturday Night*, playing an NBC page.

Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images

While the episode will be stacked with star power, the season will be down one familiar face as longtime cast member Bowen Yang will be missing from Studio 8H. The Emmy-nominated comedian exited the show in the middle of his seventh season on the cast, saying goodbye on the Dec. 20 episode hosted by his good friend and *Wicked *costar Ariana Grande alongside the legendary Cher in her first return since her 1987 *SNL* debut.

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Yang's exit follows the departures of five of his past costars ahead of the season 51 premiere in October. Heidi Gardner, Ego Nwodim, Devon Walker, Michael Longfellow, and Emil Wakim were all absent from the new season. In their place, the show added five new featured players: Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane, Kam Patterson, Veronika Slowikowska, and Please Don't Destroy member Ben Marshall.

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Previous episodes this season featured Bad Bunny with Doja Cat, Amy Poehler with Role Model, Sabrina Carpenter doing double duty as host and musical guest, Miles Teller with Brandi Carlile, Nikki Glaser with Sombr, Glen Powell with Olivia Dean, Melissa McCarthy with Dijon, and Josh O’Connor with Lily Allen.

After the first round of upcoming episodes, the show will go on another break as NBC will be the broadcast home of the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, which kick off on Friday, Feb. 6, and run through Sunday, Feb. 22.**

*Saturday Night Live* airs Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET/8:30 p.m. PT on NBC and Peacock.

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Source: “EW SNL”