Katseye, the Girl Group Built in L.A., Played the 'SNL' Season Premiere

The group sent up the talent show it came from, crowning an awkward new girl group played by SNL's two newest cast members.

Katseye, the girl group Hybe and Geffen built in Los Angeles, was the musical guest when "Saturday Night Live" opened its 52nd season on Saturday.

They didn't just sing. They also showed up in a sketch that made fun of the reality competition that introduced them. That's a good part of why searches for the group's name from California passed 2,000 on Sunday, according to Google's search trend data.

If you're one of them, here's what happened, and where it came from.

1. They spoofed the show that made them. Katseye went back to a fake new season of "The Debut: Dream Academy" to pick a new girl group, Deadline reported. The sketch doubled as the debut of Grace Reiter and Saidah Belo-Osagie, the two newest members of the cast.
2. The winners weren't exactly polished. Deadline described the group SNL crowned as awkward. Katseye then joined them in a short music video, with cast members Jane Wickline and Veronika Slowikowska in it too, the outlet reported. It's a sharp booking for a group whose origin story is a talent competition: the joke only works because they've actually lived it.
3. The group is an L.A. product. Katseye is a joint project of Hybe and Geffen, assembled in Los Angeles. So a group put together in this city ended up on the biggest comedy stage in New York, in the first episode of the season.
4. They shared the night with an NBA champion. The Knicks' Jalen Brunson, MVP of the 2026 NBA Finals, made his hosting debut at 30 Rockefeller Center after a Knicks win at Madison Square Garden, Deadline reported. His signature bit was a "High School Musical" parody in which he played a new kid who keeps dunking on the show's Troy Bolton stand-in, played by Jeremy Culhane, and walks off with his girlfriend.
5. If the episode started late for you, blame college football. Deadline reported that the Season 52 premiere was delayed in many areas because of college football games running long in the NBC schedule slot.

For a group many viewers met for the first time on Saturday night, that search spike is the internet's version of asking the person next to you, "Wait, who's that?"

Brunson got the headlines. Katseye got the follow-up searches.

The season keeps going with Dakota Johnson, Shane Gillis and Inde Navarrette lined up as hosts and Turnstile, Rosalía and Gracie Abrams as musical guests, according to Deadline.

Source: deadline.com, retrieved September 27, 2026.