NBA Finals MVP Jalen Brunson of the 2026 championship-winning New York Knicks is scheduled to kick off the 52nd season of “Saturday Night Live” on Saturday, the show said.
Brunson is the fifth NBA star to host the popular sketch show, joining coach Bill Russell and legendary players Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley and LeBron James in sharing that status.
He averaged 32.6 points per game in the NBA Finals to help his team win its first championship in 53 years.
Saturday’s show also marked the first season of “SNL” for two new featured cast members, Saidah Belo-Osagie and Grace Reiter, after bidding farewell to actress Chloe Fineman and writer Martin Herlihy, who also appeared in a number of sketches.
Fineman landed a role in “Myron Bolitar,” a Netflix drama series based on Harlan Coben’s thriller novels about a former basketball star who reinvents himself as a sports agent. Netflix announced that filming on the series began in New York in July.
Saturday’s musical guest is Katseye, the K-pop-influenced group made up of six women from around the world but often performing in quintets and quartets due to interruptions. The act was done through a partnership between Geffen Records and South Korean company HYBE Entertainment, home of BTS.
“SNL” airs on NBC, a division of NBCUniversal, which is also the parent company of NBC News.
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