Saturday Night Live kicked off its 52nd season with NBA Finals MVP Jalen Brunson as its first host, and he had his starting lineup there to support him.
Brunson began his monologue by joking that his time winning the 2026 NBA championship this year with the New York Knicks may mirror his hosting stint.
“Tonight I’m gonna approach hosting in the same way I approach the Knicks finals game; so the first three quarters of the show are gonna be god awful. The last sketch is gonna be amazing,” he said. “This summer, I helped the Knicks win the NBA championship. By now, you’ve all heard me talk about it, but you haven’t heard me sing about it… And obviously I’m not going to.”
He also joked about being back in Madison Square Garden for the NBA season that’s about to start, where Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce got married this summer.
“The new season is just a couple of weeks away, and I gotta say, it’s gonna be pretty cool to be back at Madison Square Garden. Looking around like, wow, just a few months ago, this was the exact spot where Taylor and Travis got married,” he said. Brunson
The New York Knicks won the NBA championship in June, marking their first win since 1973. Brunson was awarded with the title of NBA Finals MVP after the dynamic season. To support his debut as an SNL host, the Knicks starting five, Karl-Anthony Towns, Josh Hart, OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges, were all in attendance.
Brunson said he was going to take questions from the audience, to which the camera panned over to make way for his teammates. Towns kicked off a round of questions, asking, “Can you foul out of SNL?” Brunson responded, “No, I don’t think so.”
“I could be here, like, the whole show?” Towns added. Hart candidly asked the SNL host, “Is it true that you took a $113 million pay cut just to resign with the Knicks?”
Brunson said, “Yeah, that’s pretty true.” Hart asked an additional follow-up question: “Wow. So is that money, like, still up for grabs?”
The first cold open of the new season poked fun at New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and President Donald Trump’s bromance. Ramy Youssef portrayed Mamdani, while James Austin Johnson returned to dish out his impersonation of Trump.
Mamdani was told he had a guest, to which he responded, “What reckless lunatic would travel to see me in this kind of weather?”
“Your best friend!” Johnson’s Trump said. “I missed my day one. For some reason that no one can figure out, I really, really like you.” Youssef pointed out the El Niño impacting New York City, telling the faux president, “That’s very kind, but wouldn’t you rather be in D.C.? We’re in the middle of El Niño.”
“Oh, El Niño, we don’t like big stores, especially when they’re in Spanish,” Trump said. He went on to talk about his “crazy week”: “I kicked out the press and hung out with the president of China, Xi. And yeah, I went brunette. It’s fall!”
“There was this crazy AI stuff, too,” he continued. “I just had dinner with Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg, and it made me think, wow, RFK Jr.’s probably right about those vaccines.” Ashley Padilla also popped up briefly in the cold open as Natalie Harp, executive assistant to President Trump.
Towards the end of the cold open, Youssef’s Mamdani kept on insisting that he needed to get back to work. “Please let me stay here with you,” Johnson’s Trump said. “OK, only if you give us $21 billion for a housing project in Queens,” Mamdani said.
“Are you out of your mind?” Trump said, to which Mamdani offered, “What if I follow you back on Instagram?”
“It’s a done deal,” Johnson’s Trump concluded.
Jeremy Culhane reprised his Tucker Carlson impersonation during the Weekend Update segment, where he gave his opinions on this summer’s box office hits. Of Obsession, he joked, “The left’s idea of a horror movie; that a woman is forced to love a man. ‘Oh, no, help! I’m being chased by a heterosexual relationship!’”
As for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Culhane’s Carlson said, “Everybody loves Spider-Man: Brand New Gender.” Colin Jost said, “That’s not what it’s called,” as Culhane’s Carlson continued, “Spider-They, Spider-Them, uses whatever bathroom it feels like.”
He also brought up Minions & Monsters, asserting that he was “not talking about the children’s film, I’m talking about the Trump cabinet. That’s right, I’ve turned on Trump, I’m so brave.”
The New York Knicks star and Katseye were the first host and musical guest pair of the new season, also notably making their SNL debuts. Next week, Dakota Johnson will host with Turnstile as the musical act.
Shane Gillis will host on Oct. 10 with musical guest Rosalia, while Obsession star Inde Navarrette makes her SNL hosting debut on the Halloween episode. She’ll be joined by Gracie Abrams.
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