Lorne Michaels confirms 'cast changes' for Season 51 of SNL

I don't care.

And of course the first one who needs to go is Lorne Michaels himself. Sorry, but the guy to revamp this stale old show is not the guy who started it 50 years, the guy who's accumulated too many friends to be a truly relentless critic of the stupidity of the times, the 80-year-old guy whose time has passed. Sorry, give somebody else a chance or let the whole thing die.

There go Michael Longfellow, Michael Che, Heidi Gardner, Chloe Fineman, and Bowen Yang, too. The first one because he's useless. The last one because he's not funny. The rest because they're everywhere all of a sudden.

Please let it be Yang, Che and Keenan. They've worn out their welcome a very long time ago.

Oh boy! Does that mean we get a new lineup of ugly queer people in Mom jeans?

It won’t be Keenan.

First one down. Devon Walker.

Happy Trails, Devon!

The only talent that show has right now is Ego Nwodim. The rest are boring or have worn out their welcome. Zero personality.

I really wish Lorne would finally call it quits and Tina Fey would take over. But he won’t and she might say no now.

Lorne Michaels !!! —- die already…

There was a report that Michaels was testing Longfellow for the Update desk, so I think he's safe.

Longfellow is a very handsome guy - he'd be good at the desk. Get rid of Che.

Walker did almost nothing during his three years, so this is no surprise.

As long as Ego and Marcello return, I don’t care if the rest go. Chloe and Andrew have kind of run out of steam and Heidi and Sarah—what’s left in their toolbox? Longfellow and Wickline both have negative energy—charisma vacuums.

And Keenan and Bowen and Che really need to go.

I still love Mikey Day but wouldn’t be shocked if he leaves. He’s been there quite a while now.

Kenan has been there longer than any other actor ever has been in the history of the show, and he's now in late middle age.

I'd like to see handsome Emil promoted to main cast.

Kenan Thompson has played the same 3 characters for 20 years, and he'll have to be fired b/c he knows he won't ever work anywhere else.

Like anyone would notice. No one watches.

When was the last firing and who? Did everyone come back for season 50 because it was a celebration and they couldn’t fire anyone?

Who watches this now?

Longfellow reminds me of Norm Macdonald. He would be good at Update.

I do. And Kenan must stay. Fuck Chloe, Heidi, Bowen, and Che. BOOOOOO.

R20, that same question has perplexed me for decades

If they're going to let Bowen Yang go, could they please wait till December so he is unavailable for the new Wicked promo tour? The Cynthia and Ariana Show is quite enough for a startled world to deal with.

Thx.

Yeah, I have always thought that Bowen Yang is not very funny at all. He is good at collecting expensive friends though.

Che should have been fired a loooooonnnggg time ago. Frankly, fire them all, who cares. Bowen is tired, the anorexic girls are all interchangeable, Kenan is a dull bore. Marcello is okay in small doses. Everyone else? BYE.

For people asking “who still watches this,” in terms of today’s numbers for network shows, SNL does extremely well. Its overall last season was over 8 million viewers per show. For a Saturday night show at 11:30, that’s great. It also has a huge life on YouTube and TikTok where its short form and clips constantly go viral and get big numbers. The show is expensive, but once Lorne is gone, NBC will cut that in half and extract major concessions from the new showrunner to keep it running, likely why it will struggle to get someone like Tina Fey or Seth Meyers on board. Given how his niche of show business is going right now and how tenuous his job currently is however, Seth might be up for taking it over.

[quote]For people asking “who still watches this,” in terms of today’s numbers for network shows, SNL does extremely well.

The record-setting Ariana Grande episode last season was MASSIVE. These numbers are insane for TV today.

Variety:

"The Oct. 12 episode, which was headlined by Ariana Grande and Stevie Nicks, was the most-watched on social with 712 million views. “Domingo: Bridesmaid Speech,” which was part of Grande and Nicks’ episode, was the most-watched sketch on social with 171 million views"

Most-watched season! (((((((( in 3 years ))))))))

Yeah, the folks above are pretty stupid if they think this show isn't being watched. It's been in a new hey day for years now. No, it's not as good as the mid 80s through the mid 90s, but they do have at least one or two great skits each week.

I love Bowen Yang, and hope he stays. Wickline is a terrible nepo baby and needs to go. Agree that Tina Fey needs to step into the helm. But, this is Lorne's baby, and he has every right to keep it as long as he wishes, even if it starts to really suck.

Devon Walker seemed like a super sweet guy. I hear that he used to go outside and talk to the folks waiting in line for tickets, and get to know folks, regardless of the weather, and that the cast loved him. But yeah, he just wasn't funny, and the dude was obviously reading the cue cards each time. Everyone has to use the cards, but they have to learn to memorize, and glance at the cards for the cue, and scan for any surprise changes in lines, not READ the cards as if for the first time.

I can't recall anything Walker has done on the show except some Update appearances as himself. He doesn't irritate me like Sherman and Hernandez do (let alone inspire loathing the way Pete Davidson did), so while I won't be glad to see the end of his tenure I won't be particularly broken up either.

I didn't like Heidi at first, but she's grown on me. Her weirdness is of an amusing sort rather than off-putting.

If Michael Che leaves, would Colin Jost remain as an anchor? Step back into a writer role? Become a house husband living off Scarlett's movie paydays?

Devon comments on his exit from the show.