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In earlier eras of Saturday Night Live, cast turnover tended toward mass events: Mass exodus or mass execution. Such as when the entire cast of Season 5 left, along with creator Lorne Michaels. Or subsequent changes in casts with new producers over the following five years. Michaels even infamously ended Season 11 (his first year back after his own hiatus) with a sketch that imagined trapping the entire cast in a studio set ablaze, saving only Jon Lovitz when he overhauled the roster in the summer of 1986.
More recent departures from SNL have followed two completely different trends.
If you could pass your rookie probationary period, then you’d like get promoted after two seasons from featured to repertory player, with an additional five-year contract and a full run of at least seven seasons, after which you could stay in 30 Rock for perhaps as long as you wished. Kenan Thompson has been in the building since 2003, a record 19 seasons! When cast veterans do leave, they receive fond farewells and afforded special moments during the season finale. See: Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, Pete Davidson and Kyle Mooney this past May.
So what to make of the surprising news Thursday that Alex Moffat and Melissa Villaseñor weren’t coming back for Season 48 this fall? Sure, Michaels promised a “year of change” to come, but why get rid of these two stalwarts? As I pointed out in my Season 47 report card this May, they both “fell off in the screen-time department this season, but not due to any lack of talent on their parts,” and “deserved better this season, but suffered from the bloated size of the cast. Here’s hoping they re-emerge in Season 48.”
Moffat provided a reliable straight man in the form of TV news anchors or a mockery in the form of excessive white privilege, as in the Guy Who Just A Bought, Mark Zuckerberg or Eric Trump. His departure also means no more subtle tributes to WABC-TV movie critic Sandy Kenyon as Terry Fink.
And while Mikey Day won’t have Moffat around to mock the Trumps with for these mid-term elections, at least that means less Trump stuff on SNL?!
Villaseñor, meanwhile, was a master impersonator, particularly of singers.
Of course, Villaseñor would have to look elsewhere inside 30 Rock to really showcase her chops.
Both Moffat and Villaseñor should have bigger, better opportunities on their horizons. I could see Moffat ably handling any sitcom role thrown his way, while Villaseñor, who released a solo half-hour as part of Netflix’s The Standups at the beginning of 2022, can hit the road touring comedy clubs and theaters.
Let’s just agree for a moment that Aristotle Athari’s dismissal didn’t shock SNL fans. Athari had one big character (Angelo, the star singer who supposedly takes audience requests only to mumble the same song time and again) that received multiple chances with guest hosts at dress rehearsal, only to get cut for time all but once.
It’s perhaps reminiscent of what happened in the summer of 2016, when six-year cast vets Taran Killam and Jay Pharoah found themselves kicked out with a year left on both of their contracts, along with rookie Jon Rudnitsky. Killam and Pharoah, perhaps not coincidentally, both scored leads in separate Showtime pilots within days of their SNL dismissals. Only Pharoah’s (White Famous) went to series, but Killam made his Broadway debut in Hamilton the following year and landed a two-season gig on ABC’s Single Parents. Their replacements that fall of 2016 on SNL? Moffat and Villaseñor.
What does this portend for Season 48, you might ask?
For one thing, the once-bloated cast of 21 is now down to an official 14, although that doesn’t include the trio of guys who make videos as “please don’t destroy.” Perhaps Martin Herlihy, John Higgins and Ben Marshall will get promoted and listed/announced each episode with the rest of the cast?
With longtime producer and casting specialist Lindsay Shookus also leaving SNL this summer, it’ll be interesting to see who Michaels and his assistants hire as potential new cast members have been auditioning this week in New York City.
Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.
