Saturday Night Live might not have seen the mass exodus that was predicted after the 50th season, but there’s been a lot of new blood injected into the show for season 51. In addition to four brand-new cast members (five, if you count Ben Marshall, who was already appearing on the show with Please Don’t Destroy), SNL has also brought on seven new writers. According to Variety, that includes Jack Bensinger, Jo Sunday, Maddie Wiener, Rachel Pegram, Claire McFadden, Maxwell Gay, and Tucker Flodman.
Sunday and Wiener are stand up comedians who have both been chosen as New Faces at the Just for Laughs festival. Wiener has also performed on The Tonight Show (produced by Lorne Michaels). Rachel Pegram is an actor and writer who appeared on History Of The World Part II and Blockbuster in addition to writing for shows like Killing It, Harley Quinn, and Kenan (produced by Lorne Michaels). Jack Bensinger is a comedian who co-wrote Rap World with Eric Rahill and Conner O’Malley, himself a former writer on Late Night With Seth Meyers (produced by Lorne Michaels). McFadden is a writer, performer, and artist from Chicago’s Second City whose sketch comedy and webseries can be found online (none of which were produced by Lorne Michaels, as far as we can tell). And in the grand tradition of Saturday Night Live, Gay and Flodman come straight from The Harvard Lampoon.
Variety also reports that writer Auguste White has exited the series. In this White joins other departing writers Steven Castillo, Rosebud Baker, and Celeste Yim. Please Don’t Destroy’s John Higgins also parted ways with the show (Higgins has already moved on to the Netflix movie Bad Day, so he seems to be doing okay). Saturday Night Live returns October 4 with host and musical guest Bad Bunny, while Amy Poehler will host on October 11, which is the precise 50th anniversary of the much-celebrated, long-running series.
