'Saturday Night Live' Season 44 Set to Premiere on Sept. 29

Saturday Night Live announced the return of the long-running NBC variety series.Though no host or [...]

By Jose Bastidas

Saturday Night Live announced the return of the long-running NBC variety series.

Though no host or musical guest have been revealed for the first episode of the 44th season, the sketch series will premiere on Sept. 29.

"One month until the premiere of [SNL] Season 44!" the show's official Twitter page announced Wednesday, TVLine first reported, alongside a graphic that read "We're Back September 29!"

Saturday Night Live's 43rd season was nominated for a total of 15 Emmys for this year's ceremony, which will be broadcast live on Monday, Sept. 17 and hosted by Weekend Update hosts Michael Che and Colin Jost.

Among the nominations there are five supporting actor nominees in Leslie Jones, Kate McKinnon, Aide Bryant, Alec Baldwin and first-time nominee Kenan Thompson.

Some of Thompson's most memorable Saturday Night Live skits, so far, include the "What's up with that?" skits, his Steve Harvey/Family Feud impressions, Black Jeopardy, and of course "The Rent is too Damn High."

The series also received nominating for hosts Tina Fey, Tiffany Haddish, Bill Hader and Donald Glover in the Guest Actor and Guest Actress in a Comedy categories.

Not much is changing, cast-wise for the 44th season of SNL. As previously reported Luke Null, who joined the series in season 43 along with Heidi Gardner and Chris Redd, will not return for the upcoming season.

While they had a few opportunities to develop characters — like Gardner's tween YouTube movie reviewer on Weekend Update — Null was stuck in small supporting roles in a handful of sketches. His two best sketches came in John Mulaney's episode. In one sketch, he played a best man who revealed he had an affair with Mulaney's wife, played by Cecily Strong.

Null joins the one-and-done SNL club which includes big names such as Joan Cusack, Martin Short, Michaela Watkins, Ben Stiller, Sarah Silverman, Laurie Metcalf and Robert Downey Jr.

Rumors also circulated that Bryant might leave the series, as she signed on to star on new Hulu series, Shrill. However, the filming schedule for the new series will come to a close before she has to report back to Studio 8H. Shrill is based on Lindy West's Shrill: Notes From a Loud Woman, and will star Bryant as Annie, who wants to succeed in journalism, but does not feel she needs to change her body to do so.

Without Null, the remaining featured players on SNL are Mikey Day, Gardner, Redd, Melissa Villasenor and Alex Moffat. The repertory players are Beck Bennett, Bryant, Thompson, Cecily Strong, Jost, Che, Pete Davidson, Jones, McKinnon and Kyle Mooney.

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