Lorne Michaels Teases SNL Cast Exodus Ahead of Season 51 — Who Should Stay? And Who Should Go?

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Live from New York, it’s… anyone’s guess heading into Season 51 of Saturday Night Live.

Six weeks out from the NBC sketch series’ Oct. 4 premiere, sketch series mastermind Lorne Michaels gave his first interview of the season to Puck News‘ Matt Belloni, who asked: “You said last year that you wanted to hold that core cast together through the 50th. Are you now going to shake things up?”

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“Yes,” Michaels answered. “Last season, when we were at the party of the first show, quarter of four in the morning,Dana[Carvey, who played Joe Biden] comes over to me and says, ‘I don’t think anyone knows you called me June 4th [to play Biden].’ I wanted people coming back and being part of [the 50th season]. So whenKate[McKinnon] hosted,Kristen[Wiig] and Maya [Rudolph] came back for it. And that meant there couldn’t be those kind of disruptions [to the cast], or anything that was going to take the focus off [the 50th season]. And we had an election.”

“But now, do you feel pressure to reinvent this season?” Belloni asked.

“Yeah, for sure,” Michaels told him. “It’ll be announced in a week or so.”

Top row, L to R: Sarah Sherman, Kenan Thompson, Michael Longfellow, Emil Wakim, Devon Walker, Chloe Fineman, Jane Wickline, Ashley Padilla & Andrew Dismukes; Bottom row, L to R: Michael Che, Colin Jost, Marcello Hernández, Heidi Gardner, Mikey Day, Ego Nwodim, Bowen Yang & James Austin Johnson Mary Ellen Matthews/NBC

So, who’s safe… and who’s not? Michaels would only confirm that James Austin Johnson, heading into his third season as a repertory player (and fifth season overall), will continue to impersonate President Donald Trump this fall. That leaves the fate of 16 cast members up in the air…

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Or 19, if you count Please Don’t Destroy…

Or 18, if you assume Kenan Thompson has tenure.

Of note, per LateNighter: During Season 50, Sarah Sherman, Bowen Yang and Andrew Dismukes clocked the most screen time (excluding Weekend Update co-anchor Colin Jost), while featured players Emil Wakim and Jane Wickline, and Devon Walker — now in his third season — clocked the least amount of screen time (excluding PDD’s Ben Marshall, John Higgins and Martin Herlihy).

What follows is a list of every Season 50 cast member, arranged from least to most seasons on the show. Review the current crop of Not Ready for the Primetime Players below, then leave a comment and let us know who you would like to see back for SNL Season 51… and who you think it’s time to let go.