The Saturday Night Live shake-up news is starting to roll in, as promised by Lorne Michaels himself. So far, writers Celeste Yim and Rosebud Baker have confirmed they will be departing ahead of the 51st season. Now, Late Nighter reports that back in May, Michael Longfellow sat for a Weekend Update screen test alongside one of the show’s writers, KC Shornima. Shornima has been writing for Weekend Update for three years, while Longfellow—who’s had some memorable bits behind the Update desk—has been a cast member since 2022.
Longtime Update anchors Michael Che and Colin Jost haven’t officially announced their departures yet—in fact, there hasn’t been any official cast member departure news. We can expect those announcements imminently (the show itself returns October 4), but Jost and Che have been indicating they’re ready to move on for literal years now. Jost wrote about it in his book five years ago; Che was talking about leaving during stand-up sets earlier this year. He’s also reportedly been testing out a new late night show format, so he’s clearly been preparing for a post-SNL future. Michaels, meanwhile, admitted to Puck‘s Matthew Belloni that he “for sure” feels pressure to reinvent the show after the 50th anniversary. New cast member auditions (which happen every year, regardless of “reinvention”) took place at Studio 8H earlier this month, according to Puck.
Late Nighter has no info as to whether SNL tried out other possible Update anchors, so who knows whether Longfellow and Shornima nailed it in one or if Michaels will surprise us with somebody else. This pairing would bring some welcome youthful energy to the desk (not unlike a young Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon), and both have a background in standup, which tends to suit the Weekend Update format. Prior to Saturday Night Live, Sornima wrote for Tooning Out The News; Longfellow was featured on Conan and NBC’s competition series Bring The Funny. You can check out their work below.
