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After a three-week hiatus, Saturday Night Live is back for this week with Super Mario Galaxy Movie-star Jack Black as host. The actor is set as host for the fifth time on Saturday, Apr. 4 (and now a new member of the five-timers club). In addition, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Jack White is in the books as musical guest. SNL broadcasts live on NBC, and livestream on Peacock Premium Plus with a start time of 11:30 p.m. ET/8:30 p.m. PT.

The easiest bet to watch SNL online for free is to grab a free trial to DirecTV to stream an NBC live feed online without needing a cable subscription.

GET: DIRECTV 5-DAY FREE TRIAL

Keep reading to learn all the other streaming options to watch SNL online without cable.

How to Livestream ‘Saturday Night Live’ Online for Free

In order to watch SNL, you’ll need to have access to NBC. If you have cable, then you just need to look up what channel NBC is on, which you can find it in your channel guide through your cable provider. Don’t have cable? There are a few ways to watch Saturday Night Live online for free.

DirecTV

Get Five-Day Free Trial

A subscription to DirecTV — which comes with NBC for SNL — gets you access to live TV, local and cable channels, starting at $39.99 per month for the “MyNews” package. The service even offers a five-day free trial to watch for free, if you sign up now. You can watch local networks such as CBS, ABC and FOX, while you can also watch many cable news networks.

Sling TV

Get Sling Blue

A subscription to Sling Blue, which comes with NBC for SNL, gets you access to live TV, local and cable channels. You can watch local networks such as ABC and FOX (in select markets), while you can watch many cable networks.

Please note: Prices and channel availability depends on your local TV market. You can learn more about Sling TV here.

Peacock

Get Peacock Premium

Another great option is to subscribe to Peacock, which is the official NBC streamer. The Peacock Premium Plus plan ($16.99 per month) gives you access to the NBC channel, which means you can watch SNL live. There is no free trial for the streaming platform, but if you want to watch the episode on-demand, Peacock does comes with an ad-supported plan that’s only $10.99 per month month and you’ll have access to new episodes of SNL the day after it airs.

Although Peacock doesn’t have a free trial anymore, you can sign up for a Walmart+ 30-day free trial to watch Jack Black and Jack White on Saturday Night Live for free. Learn more about Walmart+ here.

sign up for peacock premium plus here $16.99 per month

You can also expand your streaming library through Hulu + Live TV, which starts at $89.99 per month and gives you access to the entire Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN Unlimited libraries on top of hundreds of live TV channels, like NBC.

Jack Black is hosting SNL to promote his new film The Super Mario Galaxy Movie where he voiced the hilariously evil Browser. He’s also co-starring in the new Jumanji: The Next Level sequel due in theaters on Christmas Day later this year.

Meanwhile, Jack White, who has performed on SNL six times, is setting out on a tour throughout Europe this summer starting in Latvia on Saturday, May 30. He was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The White Stripes back in November 2025.

In the meantime, watch a promo reel for tonight’s episode below:

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