‘Saturday Night Live’ Producer Lorne Michaels on the Upcoming ‘Transition’ Year and Plan to Add Four New Castmembers
Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large “Saturday Night Live” is about to enter another “transition year,” Lorne Michaels told reporters in the Emmys media center on Monday, moments after picking up another win for variety sketch series. Michaels said the show, which enters its 48th season in October, will announce four new cast members next week. Longtime cast members Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, Pete Davidson and Kyle Mooney announced their exits last spring, shortly before the season’s final show. Earlier this month, three more cast members — Alex Moffat, Melissa Villaseñor and Aristotle Athari — departed the show. Michaels said the transition actually would have happened a few years ago, but the COVID-19 pandemic kept the existing cast longer than expected. “ [COVID[ interfered with the natural order of things I think people might have left earlier, but there was no place to go… And there’s nothing after the show except to go home!”