 | Sunday January 18, 2026 | | | | Happy Sunday—and welcome to another “Oops! All SNL” Sunday edition of LateNighter's newsletter. Youth culture was the order of the night this week as Finn Wolfhard made his hosting debut, presiding over parodies of Stranger Things, buzzy newcomer Heated Rivalry, and the return of one of the season’s most talked-about sketches about the youngs. Here's a rundown of our coverage. | | | | | |
| |  | | As Dennis Perkins writes, Finn Wolfhard brought an endearing go-get-’em spirit to his SNL debut, even if the material he was given didn't always hit. | | | | | |
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| |  | | Finn Wolfhard's SNL monologue was turned Upside Down when two of his Stranger Things castmates joined him for a toast to their future in "adult films." | | | | | | | |
| |  | | Coming soon to HBO: Harry and Ron are two hyper-competitive Quidditch rivals whose animosity curdles into desire. | | | | | |
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| |  | | Carpenter made her fourth SNL appearance in less than two years, reprising her role as one of four 12-/13-year-old boys who host the “Snack Homiez” podcast. | | | | | | | |
| |  | | Conformitygate got its wish (kind of) as SNL offered up its version of the show's rumored bonus episode, alongside a slew of other timeline-appropriate Stranger Things spinoffs. | | | | | | | |
| |  | | Hernández beat out quite a few cast members who made it to this point in their SNL tenures without hitting the 200-sketch milestone—including the likes of David Spade, Mike Myers, Adam Sandler, and Bowen Yang. | | | | | |
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| |  | | Weir's two appearances with The Grateful Dead came during the show’s legendary first five seasons. | | | | | | | |
| |  | | For the first time in over 13 years, SNL's studio audience was greeted with a new warm-up song this week—an especially apt choice—as Kenan Thompson passed his pre-show baton to new cast members Tommy Brennan and Veronika Slowikowska. | | | | | |
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| |  | | Once meant only for cast and crew, a rare piece of Saturday Night Live merch is now available to the general public—with a catch. | | | | | | | |
| |  | | Each SNL live week at 1:10 a.m. ET, our podcast partners at The Saturday Night Network host a live aftershow. If you missed this week's episode, it's available for streaming on LateNighter right now. | | | | | |
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