How ‘SNL’ Introduced Season 52’s New Cast Members Saidah Belo-Osagie & Grace Reiter — SkimNews
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- Saidah Belo-Osagie and Grace Reiter were introduced as Season 52's new featured players in a single early 'Dream Academy' reality-competition sketch, with Reiter receiving noticeably more screen time as the eccentric contestant Margle while Belo-Osagie played 17-year-old entrant Neelsa Boyce.
- Margle explained she only wears flip-flops because she passes out tying her shoes, showed up nude to a choreography session, and pitched the band name 'Moose Knuckle' and the lyric 'Newton's Cradle, come and get it' before performing the title track alongside musical guest KATSEYE, winners of The Debut Season 1.
- Reiter earned a second appearance in the finale locker-room sketch with host Jalen Brunson (the recent NBA Finals-winning New York Knicks star), where Kenan Thompson played her character's third-grade coach — a man with a 'really bad drinking problem' — pitching a Spider-Man porno screenplay.
- SNL broke from its usual pattern of using Weekend Update to break in new talent, instead devoting those panelist segments to Dario Amodei (Jane Wickline) and Tucker Carlson (Jeremy Culhane), meaning the two rookies' total exposure was limited to the two sketches.
- Chloe Fineman and writer-performer Martin Herlihy (of Please Don't Destroy) departed before the season, with returning cast including Michael Che, Colin Jost, Sarah Sherman, Marcello Hernández, James Austin Johnson, Andrew Dismukes, Ben Marshall, Tommy Brennan, and Veronika Slowikowska.
- Upcoming Season 52 episodes pair Dakota Johnson with Turnstile (October 3), Shane Gillis with Rosalía (October 10), and Inde Navarette with Gracie Abrams (October 31).
Why it matters: With Fineman and Herlihy gone, Belo-Osagie and Reiter are SNL's only fresh faces this season — but the premiere gave them just two sketches between them and skipped the Weekend Update debut slot the show 'often' reserves for breaking in new talent, a light rollout that leaves their roles still unproven heading into October's three announced episodes.
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