Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Dustin Rowles | TV | August 29, 2025
SNL is in the middle of a major shake-up this week, with the departures of Devon Walker, Emil Wakim, Michael Longfellow, and Heidi Gardner, so far. I expect a few more exits before it’s all said and done, but those four alone have already rattled former SNL cast member Punkie Johnson (let go last year). I even saw memes announcing Chelsea Peretti and Dylan McDermott’s “exit,” though neither was ever actually on the show.
Comparatively, several more departures would have to happen before this season reaches the chaos of SNL’s most turbulent years. Nothing, of course, compares to the end of the Dick Ebersol era and Lorne Michaels’ return, when the entire cast was replaced after season 10 (Jim Belushi, Billy Crystal, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Martin Short, among others). The new season 11 cast was then largely fired by the year’s end (Joan Cusack, Robert Downey Jr., Anthony Michael Hall, Randy Quaid, and even Damon Wayans, who was fired mid-season). Looking back, it’s wild to think that Jon Lovitz, Dennis Miller, A. Whitney Brown, and Nora Dunn were the ones kept over Robert Downey Jr.
Even setting that two-year mess aside, today’s exits still pale next to seasons 20 and 48.
Season 20 was brutal: Phil Hartman, Julia Sweeney, Rob Schneider, Melanie Hutsell, and Sarah Silverman were gone before the season even started. Mike Myers, Janeane Garofalo, and Al Franken left during the season. And then eight more were out at the end, including Chris Farley and Adam Sandler, who were fired, alongside Jay Mohr, Laura Kightlinger, Michael McKean, Ellen Cleghorne, Chris Elliott, and Mark McKinney.
It’s almost unbelievable that with a cast like that, the reason for the purge was poor ratings and one of the weakest creative seasons in the show’s history. Still, the overhaul proved smart: the next season brought in Will Ferrell, Cheri Oteri, and Darrell Hammond, kicking off a late-’90s revival that would soon add Jimmy Fallon, Tracy Morgan, Tina Fey, and Maya Rudolph.
More recently, season 47 saw a mass exit of eight cast members, including powerhouses Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, and Pete Davidson, along with Kyle Mooney, Alex Moffat, Chris Redd, Melissa Villaseñor, and featured player Aristotle Athari. Cecily Strong would also leave midway through season 48.
Yet SNL kept going. Of the four newcomers brought in to fill the void after that exodus, only Marcello Hernandez remains — Michael Longfellow and Devon Walker were just fired, and Molly Kearney was cut after one season.
That the show continues to survive (and occasionally thrive) speaks to the veteran anchors who have carried it in recent years: Bowen Yang, Heidi Gardner (now departing), Ego Nwodim, Kenan Thompson, Mikey Day, and Chloe Fineman. Still, it’s worrying that in the past four seasons, only two cast members — Marcello Hernandez and Sarah Sherman — have truly broken out. SNL badly needs fresh stars to keep the show humming once those veterans eventually move on. The show could survive the departures of Mikey Day, Kenan, and even Fineman, but it really needs Bowen Yang and Ego Nwodim at least another year to help bring along the new cast.
