“Saturday Night Live” celebrates 50 years of comedy
This is the 50th anniversary of the Saturday Night Live, a live performance from New York.
The annual “Saturday Night Live” cast shakeup has officially begun.
Devon Walker showed in an Instagram post on August 25th that he would leave the NBC sketch show after three seasons. The comedian said, “Did you wait or have you been fired?”
“I did the show together for three years and it was really cool at times,” Walker wrote. “It was toxic at times like hell, but we did what we made the most of it, even amid all the dysfunction.”
Walker, 34, captioned the post, “Me and Baby have broken up.” In his Instagram story, he described his departure as “good news,” adding, “it was time for me to do something different.”
The comic has starred in “SNL” since 2022, and joined the cast alongside fellow newcomers Michael Longfellow, Marcello Hernandez and Molly Carney.
The announcement came after another behind the scenes change. On August 24th, Celeste Im announced his departure as a writer for “SNL” after five seasons. In an Instagram post, Yim, who joined in 2020, said that he “literally made all of my dreams come true.”
“SNL” usually says goodbye to some members of the cast while bringing in new blood during the season. Most recently, Molly Kearney, Punkie Johnson and Chloe Troast left the show in 2024 between season 49 and season 50, but Jane Wickline, Ashley Padilla and Emil Wakim were added. Trost said the exit was not her decision and she “will not be returned.”
“I hope to come back with all the great friends I made there. It really felt like home,” Trost said. “But that wasn’t on the card.”
“SNL” is off the landmark’s 50th season. The show is marked with a Primetime special featuring many of the past stars. Towards the season 50 finale, speculation went wild among fans whose cast members could leave. The season finale on May 17th saw no obvious send-off suggesting whose final episode the cast members were, but the show enjoyed the theory.
In the monologue song, host Scarlett Johansson sang, “Sarah (Sharman) Leaves.” The “Weekend Update” then joked about speculation that Colin Jost might leave his role as anchor taking over the job of “SNL” creator Lorne Michaels.
In a recent interview with Puck, Michaels said the cast would need to be put together until season 50 to prevent “confusion,” but he teased that season 51 changes were in store.
“SNL” is scheduled to return on Saturday, October 4th with the Season 51 premiere.
