That will make this year’s season opener the earliest for SNL since 2012, when Season 38 premiered on September 15. Typically a festive, star-studded affair, the holiday episode often ranks among SNL’s highest-rated broadcasts of the season. Seven-season SNL veteran Chloe Fineman was the first cast member to announce her departure earlier this month. Two more performers joined that season’s cast later in the year. Official announcements regarding the show’s cast—both returning and new—usually drop in early September, followed by word of the season’s first hosts.