NBC’s Saturday Night Live ends the year strong with three straight December episodes

Saturday Night Live is finishing 2025 with its most star-studded lineup of the season with season 51 already delivering major sketches and performances.

However, December promises to be a holiday blowout with three consecutive live episodes featuring returning legends, fan-favorite hosts, a highly anticipated debut and musical guests spanning icons to rising Grammy nominees.

The show, which has six episodes into its 2025 season, recently featured Glen Powell and Olivia Dean, following earlier hosts like Bad Bunny, Amy Poehler, Sabrina Carpenter, Miles Teller and Nikki Glaser. The upcoming guests set to light up the stage of Saturday Night Live are:

• Melissa McCarthy is appearing for the sixth time on December 6, 2025 with musical guest Dijon.

• Josh O'Connor is set to make his Saturday Night Live hosting debut on December 13, 2025 with musical guest Lily Allen.

• Ariana Grande will then return to host the December 20, 2025, episode for the third time.

• Cher will appear for the first time as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live since 1987.

Here is the December lineup for Saturday Night Live season 51 marking the end of the year 2025

Saturday Night Live ​​​​​​episodes in December are set to kick off with comedy powerhouse Melissa McCarthy who returns to host on December 6, 2025.

This marks her sixth time leading the show and her first hosting appearance since 2017, though she did pop in last year for Martin Short’s holiday episode, where her cameo during the “Five-Timers Club” induction became an instant classic.

McCarthy has a long history of dominating the Saturday Night Live stage; every one of her hosting episodes has earned Emmy nominations and she even won the award in 2017 for her portrayal of Sean Spicer. The musical guest joining her is Dijon.

He will make his SNL debut, arriving with serious momentum as he is nominated for two Grammy Awards, currently touring in support of his acclaimed 2025 album Baby and also starred alongside Alana Haim and SNL legend Jim Downey in Paul Thomas Anderson’s film One Battle After Another.

On December 13, 2025, the Studio 8H stage would welcome a debutant, Josh O'Connor, the Emmy-winning actor best known for The Crown and a growing list of prestige film roles.

O’Connor is enjoying a successful year, starring in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, the third film in the beloved Knives Out franchise, which hits Netflix on December 12, 2025. He also co-stars with Paul Mescal in The History of Sound. 

The musical guest that night would come from Lily Allen, returning to Saturday Night Live for the second time since her 2007 debut. The English singer recently released her fifth studio album, West End Girl, which has been one of her most talked-about projects in years. 

The final episode of Saturday Night Live for the year streams on December 20, 2025, with Ariana Grande returning to host the NBC stage for the third time, closing out a monumental year for the Grammy-winning singer and Oscar-nominated actress.

Grande stars as Glinda in the blockbuster musical film Wicked: For Good, which premiered on November 21, 2025 and she’s been actively promoting the movie alongside SNL cast member and co-star Bowen Yang. 

However, the most awaited musical guest is the Oscar, Emmy and Grammy Award-winning singer and actor Cher, who is going to appear in the Ariana Grande-hosted episode.

Cher will return to the Saturday Night Live stage as musical guest for the first time since 1987, after a huge 38-year gap between appearances.

This will be only her second official appearance as musical guest, though she also appeared at the SNL 50th Anniversary celebration earlier this year, performing “If I Could Turn Back Time” at the Homecoming Concert.

Her 1987 performance, which included I Found Someone and We All Sleep Alone, remains iconic enough that it was featured in Questlove’s Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music documentary.

Cher arrives to promote her recent memoir, Cher: The Memoir, now out in paperback, and the continued popularity of her 2023 holiday album Christmas. 

New episodes of Saturday Night Live air live on NBC at 11:30 pm ET/ 8:30 pm PT with the episodes streaming the next day on Peacock.

Stay tuned for more updates.