NEED TO KNOW
- Lorne Michaels revealed there would be news of a cast shakeup ahead of Saturday Night Live season 51 during an interview with Puck News on Aug. 22
- The show’s creator shared that the announcement would be coming in the next week
- He also opened up about why it was important to him to keep the “focus” on the celebratory 50th season last year
Some changes are coming to Saturday Night Live!
Although the milestone 50th season of the sketch comedy series came to an end without any word on cast departures, that won’t be the case for long.
During an interview with Puck News, published on Aug. 22, creator Lorne Michaels replied “yes” when asked if he plans to “shake things up” with casting for season 51.
“It’ll be announced in a week or so,” he revealed of when fans can expect to hear the news.
TheStewartofNY/WireImage
Michaels, 80, explained that he delayed any major switch-ups last season so the success of the show could take center stage amid celebrations.
“I wanted people coming back and being part of [the 50th season],” he explained. “So, when Kate [McKinnon] hosted, Kristen [Wiig] and Maya [Rudolph] came back for it. 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,” he noted.
While he didn’t offer many details about who might be returning or leaving, Michaels did confirm that actor James Austin Johnson will continue to play Donald Trump. Alec Baldwin famously played the role during the 2016 election cycle and throughout Trump’s single term as president.
Saturday Night Live/YouTube
The outlet reported that auditions for the upcoming season have already taken place.
Michaels, who created SNL in 1975, admitted he feels some pressure to reinvent the iconic series and further shared that “more people are involved in the choices and in the decisions” surrounding the show than they used to be.
“That’s already been happening [in] the past year or so,” he said, adding: “There’s a lot of people in that room with a lot of opinions. I make the final decision, obviously. But it’s not as if people don’t let me know how strongly they feel.”
Theo Wargo/NBC
Kenan Thompson, the longest-tenured cast member in SNL history, hinted at some changes ahead of season 51 in May.
Calling the season 50 finale “bittersweet,” Thompson told Page Six that it was partly because “there’s maybe, possibly, a lot of change next year.”
“You want everyone to stay forever, knowing that people may be making decisions over the summer,” he continued. “It’s always like you want your kids to stay young.”
With 22 seasons under his belt, the 47-year-old said, “You just never know what the future holds.”
“I don’t want to be in the way of someone else or I don’t want to be the stale old man riding the same thing,” he told the outlet. “That doesn’t really happen that much at SNL, but there’s no guarantees, I guess.”
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Saturday Night Live season 51 premieres on Saturday, Oct. 4 at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.
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