Saturday Night Live boss Lorne Michaels has revealed that multiple current cast members will be cut from the NBC show within days.
During an interview with Puck’s Matthew Belloni, Michaels, 80, said the fate of the comedy sketch stars would be determined ‘in a week or so’ ahead of the fall season.
He warned of a ‘significant shake-up’, according to Belloni, who wrote that ‘several current cast members are expected to exit’ before Season 51 premieres on October 4.
When asked whether he would ‘shake things up’ ahead of the fall, Michaels said: ‘Yes.’ But no hint was given as to which members of the 17-strong cast are at risk.
‘Last season, when we were at the party of the first show, quarter of four in the morning, Dana (Carvey) comes over to me and says, “I don’t think anyone knows you called me June 4th (to play Joe Biden)”,’ Michaels added.
‘I wanted people coming back and being part of the 50th season. So when Kate (McKinnon) hosted, Kristen (Wiig) and Maya [Rudolph] came back for it,’ Michaels said, referring to past cast members who’ve gone on to glittering careers.
‘And that meant there couldn’t be those kind of disruptions, or anything that was going to take the focus off the 50th season. And we had an election.’
When asked whether he felt ‘pressure to reinvent this season’, Michaels said: ‘Yeah, for sure’. ‘It’ll be announced in a week or so,’ he added.
It comes weeks after SNL stars Punkie Johnson and Molly Kearney announced early August that they would not be returning for new episodes.
The most famous members of the current cast include Colin Jost, Bowen Yang and Kenan Thompson.
SNL Season 51 will premiere on Saturday, October 4, at 11:30 PM ET on NBC and Peacock, after the summer hiatus since May 17.
Michaels also spoke about CBS firing Stephen Colbert and killing off his Late Show franchise, revealing that he was left ‘stunned’ by the move.
‘I’m on the side of the people who do shows, but there’s two audiences now,’ he said.
‘There’s the audience that is (watching on) TikTok and YouTube, and there’s a linear audience.
‘Both Seth (Meyers) and (Stephen) Colbert are heirs to David Letterman. You know what I mean? Conan (O’Brien) as well.
‘They’re going to be doing that (type of show), just as I’m still doing SNL, as if everybody’s watching that night.
‘But Jimmy (Fallon) does a lot of stuff that you can watch all day.’
CBS and its parent company, Paramount, announced that Colbert’s show would ‘end its historic run’in May 2026, just over a decade after it first launched, as it hemorrhaged $40 million per year.
‘We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will retire the Late Show franchise at that time,’ the broadcast executives said.
‘We are proud that Stephen called CBS home. He and his broadcast will be remembered in the pantheon of greats that graced late night television.’
A media expert told the Daily Mail that SNL could also be axed once Michaels – who created the show – finally retires.
Robert Thompson, who founded the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University, shared the gloomy forecast in late July.
Thompson said he believes that when Michaels retires, NBC may cancel SNL along with the 80-year-old media mogul’s other shows – which include The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Night With Seth Meyers.
Speaking days after CNBC revealed SNL, Fallon and Meyers have been losing a combined $100 million a year, Thompson said, ‘(Lorne Michaels) cant keep doing that forever.
‘If he decides to retire, or cant do those shows anymore, NBC would be [in] an interesting position.’
He added that the network would have the ‘opportunity to get out of late night in one fell swoop instead of overhauling every program.
‘It would be the easiest time to say, we had a good run.’
Thompson told the Daily Mail part of the reason the shows are ‘vulnerable’ is the challenge that NBC faces in replacing Michaels, a visionary who first created SNL in 1975.
‘It would be a big commitment,’ he said of the network staying in the late night game. ‘I’m not sure the people at NBC have that.’
SNL remains a cultural zenith that attracts the most elite of A-list celebrities to guest host and perform musical acts. It’s also been a launch pad for some of the greatest names in comedy – Tina Fey, Will Ferrell, Maya Rudolph and Chris Rock, to name a few.
It costs $4 million an episode to produce, or around $100 million a year annually.
The show attracted around 8 million live viewers per episode for its 25th anniversary celebrations and millions more on streaming, as well as on its social media channels.
But even those numbers are not enough to help SNL or its stablemates Fallon and Meyers cover their costs with traditional advertising, CNBC reported, which has declined across the board as viewers shun linear TV for streamers.
An insider pushed back against the $100 million loss figure when contacted by the Daily Mail.
They insisted the loss figure ‘comes down quite a bit’ when other revenue streams including digital advertising are factored in, while effectively conceding that the shows still fail to break even.
