NBC

It’s been curiously quiet on the front of SNL Season 42, particularly with an October 1 premiere looming overhead, and several significant departures. Now, a new Day may be on the horizon, as Season 42 sets its first major addition in writer Mikey Day.

Let’s face it – if any late-night host was going to take the initiative on a Stranger Things parody with the actual cast, it was Jimmy Fallon. So it is, that the young stars reprised their roles for a Tonight Show sketch, wherein the long-lost Barb finally gets her own justice.

It’s taken forever and a day to finally see both Arnold Schwarzenegger taking the Celebrity Apprentice desk, and Emerald City come to life, but NBC has finally made a firm commitment. Both high-profile new series have set January bows, just barely into 2017.

You may have heard an old anecdote around The Walking Dead, that initial network notes for the undead drama questioned whether the series needed zombies at all, but it seems AMC’s flagship hit was practically almost iZombie. Producer Gale Ann Hurd reveals that NBC wanted to tweak the premise into a police procedural solving zombie-related cases.

And the SNL changes keep rolling ahead of Season 42. Just days after losing cast favorites Taran Killam and Jay Pharoah (and Jon Rudnitsky, sorry) from the series, SNL has elected two new head writers to take the reigns before the fall season.

SNL is built for a bit of turnover here and there, but that doesn’t remove the sting from losing some of its best not-ready-for-primetime-players. To wit, Season 42 has some surprising departures, including series veterans Taran Killam and Jay Pharoah.

If ever you thought days telling those Snapchatting kids to get off your lawn were coming to a middle, NBC has bad news. Not only will shows like SNL and E! News soon have their own Snapchat series, The Voice will even start using it as an audition tool.

Not that the Republican National Convention lacked for its own special breed of entertainment night after night, but the political arena at least managed to bring SNL out of summer break early. Watch Colin Jost and Michael Che bring Weekend Update to Cleveland with the requisite Pokémon GO sketch you never wanted, plus bonus Kate McKinnon!

SNL won’t return for Season 41 until at least September, but considering their comparatively light workloads, Weekend Update hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che are ending their summer breaks early to take on the political conventions. Ahead of a more classic Weekend Update, however, watch as Jost and Che take to the streets of Cleveland for some fun at the RNC’s expense.

No late-night comedians could easily resist the call of the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, and it looks like SNL will be getting in on the fun as well. Long before Season 42 hits NBC, Colin Jost and Michael Che will bring special editions of Weekend Update to MSNBC for both events.

NBC’s DC office comedy Powerless skipped out on a first trailer by its midseason placement, but with a full debut scheduled for Comic-Con 2016, the series has at least a few new details to offer. New interviews with the cast tease not only the first official DC villain featured in the show, but additional details of the main characters.

The likelihood of Hannibal Season 4 seems to get dimmer with each day removed from that cliff-diving finale, but according to Bryan Fuller, our chances are actually improving. Busy though he, Mads Mikkelsen and Hugh Dancy remain, Fuller says the possibility may again open up in late 2017.