It’s not surprising to see more Saturday Night Live staffers departing the show as Lorne Michaels commences his annual purge, but the latest name to be announced does come as a bit of a shock. Repertory player Michael Longfellow is officially out, Deadline reports. Longfellow didn’t have much screentime in season 50—in May he joked that he only worked “like 12 hours a week”—but earlier this week, Late Nighter reported that the comedian had screen tested alongside writer KC Shornima to potentially take over the Weekend Update desk. Whether the new update means Michael Che and Colin Jost will stay in the job for at least another year is unclear, but Longfellow definitely won’t be subbing in.
Deadline did not specify whether Longfellow was fired or left of his own accord, and as of this writing, neither NBC nor Longfellow himself have commented on the departure. Longfellow follows writers Celeste Yim and Rosebud Baker as well as performers Devon Walker and Emil Wakim, the latter of which indicated in his post about the news that he was let go.
Longfellow joined the show as a featured player in season 48 and was promoted to a member of the main cast ahead of the series’ landmark 50th season. It’s a shame he won’t be returning to the Weekend Update desk (much less running it) as he did have some memorable moments on the segment, including bits in which he discussed TikTok and Real ID, during his tenure.
Ahead of the show’s 50th anniversary special earlier this year, Longfellow offered some advice to new cast members, per Entertainment Weekly. “Buy in. Be crazy. You can stay up for two days in a row. You just got to do it,” he said. “It’s not fun, but you can do that.” Longfellow also works as a touring stand-up comic outside of SNL, but at least he can get a little more sleep going forward. We’ll see what other cast members hit the road during SNL‘s great shake-up, which doesn’t show any signs of slowing down over the next few days or weeks.
