NBC Announces That ‘Saturday Night Live’ Will Resume Airing Live From New York

NBC announced Thursday that Saturday Night Live will finally be airing live from New York again soon. The famed variety show will begin its 46th season in October, just in time for the 2020 presidential election.

Though in the NBC announcement it was announced that SNL would be returning to the iconic Studio 8H in the Rockefeller Center, there is reportedly word that that is not the only place the show will be filmed. According to TMZ sources, the show may be scouting open spaces in NYC, Brooklyn, and Jersey to film some pre-taped sketches, in order to help the cast and crew social distance in a way that Studio 8H cannot provide. In a continuation of the three remote episodes filmed after the March shutdown, SNL may still use Zoom for celebrity guests, though the upcoming hosts and musical guests have yet to be announced. It is expected that, in tandem with other shows returning to filming in New York City right now, there will not be a studio audience.

With the announcement of Kamala Harris being selected as Joe Biden‘s running mate, there is also word of Maya Rudolph, who portrayed Harris on SNL in the past, returning to the show.

A small production crew will be returning to the Rockefeller Center studio next week to begin to prepare for the season, the first episode of which will be airing on October 3.