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Saturday Night Live Season 51 is going to look a lot different. In the past few weeks, several cast members — including Michael Longfellow, Emil Wakim, and Devon Walker — and a handful of the show’s writers have announced that they’re leaving SNL ahead of the next season.
The exits seem to be part of wider changes expected at the NBC staple after SNL creator Lorne Michaels said in an interview withPuck that fans can expect major moves leading up to the premiere ofthe new season on Oct. 4. When asked if he was going to “shake things up” at SNL, he said yes.
“It’ll be announced in a week or so,” said Michaels on Friday, noting that this upcoming season he feels “the pressure to reinvent.”
Here’s everyone (and every sketch) who has exited or confirmed are leaving Saturday Night Live ahead of Season 51:
Ego Nwodim
In what appears to be a rather last-minute shakeup, Ego Nwodim has announced her departure from the show after seven seasons.
“The hardest part of a great party is knowing when to say goodnight. But after seven unforgettable seasons, I have decided to leaveSNL. I am immensely grateful to Lorne for the opportunity, to my castmates, the writers, and the crew for their brilliance, support, and friendship. Week after week on that stage taught me more than I could have ever imagined, and I will carry those memories, and that laughter, with me always,” she said in a statement.
According to Deadline, Nwodim’s exit came after Michaels had solidified the cast for the upcoming season.
John Higgins
Please Don’t Destroy‘s John Higgins is among the latest SNL members to depart the show. Higgins was a member of sketch comedy group Please Don’t Destroy alongside Ben Marshall and Martin Herlihy.
But while Higgins is out, Marshall will join the cast as a featured player for Season 51, and Herlihy will continue as a writer on the program.
With not all members of Please Don’t Destroy continuing into the next season, it is likely that the often-viral Please Don’t Destroy sketches will not continue. The trio will, however, continue making content together outside of the NBC comedy show.
Heidi Gardner
Multiple outlets, including Variety and People, confirmed that Heidi Gardner won’t be returning to SNL for Season 51. Gardner was an SNL staple and worked at the NBC show for eight years.
The comedian participated in more sketches than any other cast member in Season 49 and was known for her “Weekend Update” character, teen movie critic Bailey Gismert. She was the longest-tenured female cast member during Season 50.
Michael Longfellow
On Thursday, several outlets confirmed that Longfellow was officially out ahead of SNL 51. He later shared a statement saying he wished he were able to return to the show for another season.
“It was the best three years of my life so far. I feel nothing but gratitude for the experience and everyone there,” Longfellow wrote. “Lorne, you gave me the greatest job in the world and changed my life. You even put my mom on TV. Thank you doesnt begin to cover it, but thank you.”
He added: “I’ll miss it all, but I’ll miss the friends I made and seeing them everyday the most.”
Longfellow joined the cast as a featured player in Season 48 and became part of the main cast for Season 50. He has yet to address his departure on social media.
The news came as a surprise to some after LateNighter reported that Longfellow taped a screen test for the “Weekend Update” segment, which Colin Jost and Michael Che currently co-host. (It’s unclear if the pair of comedians plan to leave the show.)
“Excited for the future and things to come. If you take anything away from my time on SNL let it be that smoking you makes you skinny and popular, Jesus was Chinese, and if a tortoise ever gives you trouble just kill him tough guy,” he wrote, joking about his sketches. “You won’t.”
Emil Wakim
Wakim announced on Wednesday that he wouldn’t be returning to SNL next season after joining for SNL 50.
“I won’t be returning to SNL next year,” he wrote on Instagram. “It was a gut punch of a call to get, but I’m so grateful for my time there.”
Wakim shared that he found out about his departure while at Six Flags and went on an “emotional walk through Bugs Bunny Park and stared out across Daffy Duck Lake thinking about life.”
Wakin also thanked SNLcreator Lorne Michaels for believing in him and “changing my life.”
“Every time I scanned into the building I would think how insane it is to get to work there,” he said. “It was the most terrifying, thrilling, and rewarding experience of my life and I will miss it dearly and all the brilliant people that work there that made it feel like a home.”
Devon Walker
Walker shared the news of his exit on Tuesday, writing on social media that “me and baby broke up.”
“Me and the show did three years together, and sometimes it was really cool,” Walker wrote in a post about his departure. “Sometimes it was toxic as hell. But we did what we made the most of what it was, even amidst all of the dysfunction. We made a fucked up lil family.”
While it’s unclear if Walker was leaving the show by choice, he poked fun at the scenario and titled his note, “wait..did he quit or did he get fired?”
Walker joked that he’s trying to be “in a prestige drama” next, “ideally something with Julianne Moore.”
Celeste Yim and Rosebud Baker
Yim and Baker, who were both writers on the show, are also departing Saturday Night Live.
Yim was a part of the SNL writing room for five years. They joined the show in 2020 and were promoted to writing supervisor in 2023.
“Lorne hired me over the phone when I was 23, and the job literally made all of my dreams come true … I loved it and I laughed every day and it’s where I grew up,” they wrote. “I was the first-ever out trans person to be a writer for SNL. I always felt honored to be working within the long tradition of queer writing at the show.”
Yim wrote a special thank you to cast member Bowen Yang for “changing my life and for making me feel normal.”
Meanwhile, writer and stand-up comic Baker left the show after joining SNL during Season 47 back in 2022 after writing for That Damn Michael Che. She wrote for “Weekend Update” during Season 50.
“It was a stroke of luck. There are so many funny comics and hilarious people. I’m not saying I’m not skilled, but I do think that when it comes down to how many skilled comedians there are, there is a stroke of luck that they called me,” Baker told Rolling Stone about joining SNL earlier this year. “Maybe thinking of it that way is helpful to me, it keeps you kind of humble.”
Season 51 ofSNLwill now consist of 17 people after Michaels added Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane, Kam Patterson, and Veronika Slowikowska to the cast, as well as Please Don’t Destroy’s Ben Marshall.
They join Michael Che,Mikey Day, Andrew Dismukes, Chloe Fineman,Marcello Hernandez, James Austin Johnson,Colin Jost, Sarah Sherman, Kenan Thompson, and Bowen Yang, as well as featured players Ashley Padilla and Jane Wickline.
This story is being updated as new cast member departures are being announced and reported.
