So Much For Trimming the Cast: 'SNL' Hires A New Featured Player

By Dustin Rowles | Saturday Night Live | September 15, 2014 |

By Dustin Rowles | Saturday Night Live | September 15, 2014 |

The biggest problem with last season of Saturday Night Live, as has been written about extensively, was its super large cast, which made it difficult for everyone to get enough screen time, and probably made it difficult for the entire cast to gel. Lorne Michaels, we thought, recognized that problem, which is why he cut three featured players over the summer, any one of whom probably could’ve broken out if they’d had enough air time to make a name for themselves. Nasim Pedrad also left, and Michael Patrick O’Brien returned from whence he came.

Over the weekend, however, Michaels announced that he’d added one of the show’s former writers, Michael Che, to the cast as co-anchor on “Weekend Update” along with Colin Jost, which meant that Cecily Strong was sent back into the sketch work, where she’d have to compete for airtime with 13 other people.

Make that 14.

Twenty-year old Pete Davidson — who has been added to the cast — is a stand-up comic who has appeared on Brooklyn Nine-Nine and seems to be something of a protege of Nick Cannon, having been discovered when he was 16 by Cannon, who put him on his revival of Nick Cannon Presents: Wild ‘N Out on MTV2.

Here he is earlier this year on Jimmy Kimmel Live. He’s actually very, very funny.

I like him. “I don’t even know what race I am. I’m all miscellaneous in the face.”

And if you’re wondering, being 20 doesn’t make him the youngest cast member in SNL history at all. Anthony Michael Hall was 17, Eddie Murphy was 19, and even Robert Downey, Jr. was 20.

Source: Deadline