At 11:30 p.m. on October 20, the first episode of Saturday Night Live (SNL)’s 51st season aired on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC). Featuring guest host Bad Bunny, musical guest Doja Cat, and a cast full of rising stars and familiar faces, the show was packed with energy—not to mention hundreds of ecstatic fans in the audience! First aired on October 11, 1975, by the young Canadian producer Lorne Michaels, SNL has since become an American staple. A late-night television comedy show featuring comedy sketches, live music, and a rotating host; SNL recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. As it turns the corner into a new era of comedy and embraces a younger generation of viewers, questions abound about the direction that the beloved show is headed.
This season, SNL welcomed in five new “featured players,” newer cast members with less on-screen time than repertory players. Being a featured player could be described as a trial period: within two seasons, new players are generally promoted to the repertory if they do well on the show, or let go if they are less well received. SNL’s featured cast now includes five new players: Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane, Ben Marshall, Kam Patterson, and Veronika Slowikowska.
Brennan and Patterson are a pair of up-and-coming stand-up comics–Brennan was selected as a “new face” at the renowned Just for Laughs Comedy Festival, and Patterson has over 433,000 TikTok followers and appears frequently on the popular comedy podcast Kill Tony. SNL leans towards character work in its particular comedic style, but there is a definitive place for stand-up, especially in “Weekend Update,” the often highly political segment poking fun at current events in the form of a satirical weekly news show.
At the other end of the spectrum, Culhane and Marshall lean into more traditional sketch comedy and improvisation. You may know Culhane from his work with Dropout, and longtime fans of SNL are sure to recognize Marshall from previous seasons. The redhead was a prominent member of SNL’s ranks of writers, often featured on the show along with John Higgins and Martin Herlihy as part of their comedy trio, “Please Don’t Destroy.”
Finally, Slowikowska rounds out the large group of new arrivals. Known for her videos on TikTok as well as co-hosting the comedy podcast nevermind. With Kyle Chase, her comedic style is offbeat yet relatable. Taken along with Patterson and Culhane, this push towards comedians with strong online presences seems part of an effort to bring younger viewers to SNL, an ongoing challenge for an intergenerational comedy phenomenon attempting to stay modern.
As the show welcomes in new talent, the cast has also bid five actors farewell. Comedians Heidi Gardner, Michael Longfellow, Ego Nwodim, Emil Wakim, and Devon Walker are no longer with SNL. The departing group includes the two previously longest-tenured women on the show, Gardner and Nwodim, leaving only two female repertory players, and raising questions about diversity within the cast.
Interestingly, many of the departees composed the core of SNL’s stand-up comedians. This leaves many viewers wondering if this change of course is indicative of an overall shift away from this form of comedy, yet this modification would seem at odds with SNL’s goal of a stronger online presence. Anything is possible in the post-anniversary world of Saturday Night Live, but a few things are certain: SNL will continue bringing together the generations. SNL will continue to allow us to laugh at ourselves and the world around us when life seems too serious. Most of all, SNL will continue to bring more wonder, whimsy, and cowbell into our lives at 11:30 p.m. every Saturday. And I cannot wait.