Fans are becoming increasingly angry as long-running NBC late night comedy show Saturday Night Live continues to fire cast members and writers at an alarming rate ahead of its 51st season.
The latest exit has shocked many SNL viewers after it was revealed that Heidi Gardner, a veteran of eight seasons, has been let go.
Gardner’s firing was revealed only a few days after three-season veteran Devon Walker revealed he wouldn’t be returning for season 51. Walker said that he did not see “eye to eye” with the show’s producers. Walker also claimed that the set was “toxic as hell” to work on.
Michael Longfellow was another cast member to reveal he is headed for the exits after three seasons on the show. “Will not be returning for a 4th season at SNL. Wish I was but, so it goes,” he told his followers.
Right after Walker’s announcement, Emil Wakim told his followers that a “gut punch” phone call left him on the unemployment line after a single season on the late-night sketch comedy series.
These on-air players are not the only ones taking their last bow. It appears that two major series writers are also leaving the show.
Writer Celeste Yim told followers that she is leaving the show after five years, and said it was a job that “literally made all of my dreams come true BUT it was also grueling.”
Yim was joined by Rosebud Baker, who was in her third year in the writer’s room.
In an interview with Puck News, showrunner Lorne Michaels teased a shakeup after the show’s much-hyped 50th anniversary celebration — only confirming that James Austin Johnson, who does SNL’s impersonation of President Donald Trump, would be returning.
It’s a perilous time for late-night comedy, with CBS not only dropping its flagship host Stephen Colbert but canceling The Late Show entirely, thanks to a years-long revenue deficit that reportedly exceeded $1oo million. Broadcast television in general is losing its audience and can no longer demand the same rates from advertisers, so a drastically reduced budget is likely the biggest reason for SNL’s ongoing shakeup.
As this parade of unemployed SNLers grows, some fans are calling for the show to just hang it all up, the Daily Beast reported.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston, or Truth Social @WarnerToddHuston
