Cecily Strong, the Best Part of SNL's Weekend Update, Is No Longer on SNL's Weekend Update

By Dustin Rowles | Saturday Night Live | September 11, 2014 |

By Dustin Rowles | Saturday Night Live | September 11, 2014 |

The NYTimes is reporting that, after trying several different iterations of their struggling Weekend Update (which has only been struggling since Seth Meyers left and Colin Jost came aboard), Lorne Michaels has decided to stick with the part of the equation we don’t like, Colin Jost, and remove the part of the equation we do like, Cecily Strong.

She will be replaced by one of the writers, Michael Che, who is also a correspondent for The Daily Show.

After trying out what he said were “a number of different combinations” in the last few weeks, Lorne Michaels, the show’s creator and executive producer, said he had selected Mr. Che, 31, who worked on the show last season as a writer, to be the partner of Colin Jost, who began co-anchoring “Weekend Update” in the middle of last season.

Mr. Michaels said that Mr. Che, who has had a career as a stand-up comedian in New York, formed a close relationship last year in the writer’s room with Mr. Jost, one of the show’s two head writers.

Michaels is making the movie in order to shore up the identity of “Weekend Update,” which certainly needs shoring up AFTER GETTING RID OF THE ANCHOR WE MOST IDENTIFY WITH WEEKEND UPDATE NOW.

“It struggled to find an identity last season,” Mr. Michaels said. “Because what had come before had been pretty brilliant.” (Mr. Meyers left to host NBC’s “Late Night” program, which Mr. Michaels also produces.)

“This is about a new era, what feels appropriate for now,” Mr. Michaels said. “That’s why we did a lot of combinations and tests, and this is kind of where we came out.” For the first time, the ‘Weekend Update” segment will have two men at the anchor desk.

Meanwhile, Cecily Strong — one of the most popular members of the cast right now — will stick around as a cast member. Michaels, however, said that he has a couple more moves up his sleeve before the season kicks off in a couple of weeks with Chris Pratt as host.

In other news, good for Michael Che, but I am completely heartbroken about the loss of Strong. I hope Che can fake laugh at Jost’s terrible jokes as well as Cecily Strong.

Source: NYTimes