Welcome back, Saturday Night Lifers, to another season of Saturday Night Live! Just off the Emmy circuit with wins, wins, wins, SNL is coming in hot for its 44th season!

That’s right, Saturday Night Live cleaned up at the 70th Annual Emmy Awards, hosted by their very own head writers and Weekend Update anchors Michael Che and Colin Jost. SNL won Outstanding Variety Sketch Series, Outstanding Directing for a Variety Series and many more, with guest host Tiffany Haddish won Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, too!

Emmys aside, the Saturday Night Live crew has had a big summer: SNL‘s resident young guy (still, at age 24) and go-to stand-up Pete Davidson was all over the tabloids with his zero-to-sixty relationship with Ariana Grande – having only dated for a short while, the couple got engaged over the summer hiatus.

Additionally, cast member Aidy Bryant’s show Shrill was picked up by Hulu over the summer – but don’t worry, she’s sticking around for this season of Saturday Night Live.

Speaking of sticking around, nearly every cast member from season 43 is returning this year, with the exception of the one-seasoner Luke Null. Null’s spot is being filled by newcomer and former Upright Citizen’s Brigade member Ego Nwodim! It’s always exciting to see a newbie’s first episode, first sketch, first Update appearance, first “Live from New York…”, and first character break, of course. Best of luck to Ego – though she’s coming from one of the best comedy groups in America, so she’ll do just fine.

In addition to the newbie, former newbies Alex Moffat, Melissa Villaseñor and Mikey Day have been promoted to full-fledged cast members. Congrats gang!

Also returning for the third season in a row is Alec Baldwin as that guy he keeps playing. You know, the one with the big ties and the big lies. What’s his name? Voldemort? Ganondorf? Thanos?

Right. Trump. That guy.

So, with all that out of the way, what about the season premier? When it comes to choosing a host, why settle for anything less than the star of Star Wars, Adam Driver! It’s Driver’s second time around at the hosting gig, and Lorne doesn’t choose duds for the season premier (well, unless you consider Ryan Gosling breaking in darn-near every sketch a “dud” quality…). Here’s hoping they do some more sweet Star Wars spoofs like last time.

Backing up Kylo Ren is our very own real-life Sith, Kanye West. West has been on SNL over a half-dozen times without any “Westism”, but don’t sell the guy short. He’s long overdue for an Internet-exploding public meltdown.  Oh, and he’ll probably play some music, too, or whatever. He’s usually pretty good with that, and was among the first to go way beyond all-out with some pretty sweet visuals back in 2008.

So, now you’re all caught up and ready to watch the season premier of Saturday Night Live this Saturday September 29 at 11.30 et/8.30 pt on Global. Don’t miss it!

And be sure to catch more new episodes Saturday Night Live airing Saturdays at 11.30 et/8.30 pt on Global, and watch the latest episodes online here on GlobalTV.com!