Saturday Night Live is set for a massive shakeup following the season 47 finale tomorrow with four prominent cast members supposedly announcing their departures from the series. In an article by Deadline, legacy star cast members including Aidy Bryant (Shrill), Kyle Mooney (Brigsby Bear), Kate McKinnon (Ghostbusters), and Pete Davidson (The King of Staten Island) are said to be leaving the long-running show following the upcoming season finale. There is also rumored to be a big group goodbye for the graduating members at the end of tomorrow’s episode, which is set to be hosted by Natasha Lyonne (Russian Doll).
This news comes based on a comment from show creator Lorne Michaels (Saturday Night Live) stating that he was anticipating that this year would crack out to be a “year of change” for the series. Davidson, whose prompt exit was reported on by Variety, has had his future involvement speculated on in recent months given his absence from a majority of the skits from this season. His work on a number of new projects, including a new series ordered straight to production for Peacock called Bupkis, is presumed to have factored into his desire to depart the show.
All of the retiring cast members have been writing and performing on the show for eight years, which is longer than a majority of the tenure of the other 17 members. Variety also mentions that ‘SNL‘ has already seemed to shift focus to its array of younger cast members, saying the show had “begun relying more heavily on pre-taped segments from Ben Marshall, John Higgins, and Martin Herlihy, a trio of young writers/performers known as Please Don’t Destroy.”
A rep for SNL did not return comments to provide further information.