“Saturday Night Live” may be coming back this autumn for Season 48, however, major changes will befall the long-running sketch show.
The NBC comedy series will premiere on Oct. 1, followed by consecutive shows on Oct. 8 and Oct. 15.
However, no hosts or musical guests have been announced as of yet.
A medley of challenges has struck the network, including cast shake-ups and former stars questioning if the show should continue on.
Players Alex Moffat, Melissa Villaseñor and Aristotle Athari, as well as longtime staples Aidy Bryant, Pete Davidson, Kate McKinnon and Kyle Mooney, won’t be returning to the show this year.
Ben Affleck’s former girlfriend and “SNL” producer Lindsay Shookus is also out after 20 years working behind the scenes of the parody skit series.
Cast members such as Aidy Bryant, Pete Davidson, Kate McKinnon and Kyle Mooney are not returning for the upcoming season.NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
Former “SNL” producer Lindsay Shookus departed the series earlier this year after two decades.WireImage“They’re shaking things up,” a source told Page Six this past May.
However, Kenan Thompson is coming back for the upcoming season alongside returning stars Heidi Gardner, Mikey Day, Andrew Dismukes, Chloe Fineman, James Austin, Punkie Johnson, Bowen Yang, Michael Che, Colin Jost, Ego Nwodim, Chris Redd, Sarah Sherman and Cecily Strong.
“SNL” season 47 cast included: Aristotle Athari, Colin Jost, Chris Redd, Kenan Thompson, Andrew Dismukes, Pete Davidson, Chloe Fineman, Ego Nwodim, Alex Moffat, Mikey Day, Heidi Gardner, Bowen Yang, Michael Che, Kate McKinnon, Kyle Mooney, Aidy Bryant, Sarah Sherman, Cecily Strong, James Austin Johnson, Melissa Villaseñor and Punkie Johnson.NBCU Photo Bank via Getty ImagesThompson, 44, previously admitted that he believes “SNL” should end sometime in the very near future.
The Nickelodeon alum appeared on Charlamagne tha God’s “Hell of a Week” series in July and noted that if creator Lorne Michaels, 77, retires after the 2024-25 season, then the show could properly come to an epic conclusion.
Michaels created “SNL” in 1975 and has been the showrunner for most of its multidecade run. He stopped producing the show from 1980 to 85.
“There could be a lot of validity to that rumor, because 50 is a good number to stop at,” Thompson said. “That’s an incredible package. He will be, probably, close to 80 years old at that point, and, you know, he’s the one who’s had his touch on the whole thing.”
Sketch show creator Lorne Michaels previously revealed that Season 50 might be its last.Getty Images“[NBC] might slash the budget and then at that point, you can’t really do the same kind of show. So that’s unfair to watch it just really go down kind of in flames for real because of those restrictions … Capping it at 50 might not be a bad idea,” he said.
Comedian Rob Schneider — who was a cast member between 1990 and 1994 — recently slammed McKinnon’s infamous impressions of Hillary Clinton, saying her work proved the show was “over.”
The “Hot Chick” star, 58, revealed on the “Glenn Beck Podcast” last month that he felt McKinnon’s Clinton role from a 2016 sketch ruined the show.
“I hate to crap on my old show,” he said. “I literally prayed, ‘Please have a joke at the end. Don’t do this. Please don’t go down there.’ And there was no joke at the end, and I went, ‘It’s over. It’s over. It’s not going to come back.’”
