“Saturday Night Live” has added seven new writers ahead of Season 51.
The new scribes include actor-writer Jack Bensinger (“Rap World”), stand-up comedian Jo Sunday (Just for Laughs), comic Maddie Wiener (“The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon”), actor and writer Rachel Pegram (“Harley Quinn”), writer-comedian Claire McFadden (Second City) and Maxwell Gay and Tucker Flodman, two newcomers from The Harvard Lampoon. Writer Auguste White has left the “SNL” writing staff.
After a landmark 50th season on NBC, “SNL” returns for Season 51 on Oct. 4 with host Bad Bunny and musical guest Doja Cat. On Oct. 11, Amy Poehler returns to Studio 8H to host alongside music act Role Model, and on Oct. 18, Sabrina Carpenter will pull double-duty as host and musical guest.
Ahead of the new season, “SNL” added a handful of new cast members as a slew of familiar faces departed from the show. Heidi Gardner exited the series after eight seasons, while Ego Nwodim announced her exit after seven. Also gone from the show are Michael Longfellow, Devon Walker, Emil Wakim and Please Don’t Destroy’s John Higgins, as Martin Herlihy moves to the writing staff and Ben Marshall joins the main cast. Also new to the cast are Veronika Slowikowska, Kam Patterson, Jeremy Culhane and Tommy Brennan.
Addressing the cast shake-up on the Emmys red carpet, “SNL” boss Lorne Michaels told Entertainment Tonight, “The show has always brought people in from different ages and different generations and it’s how it revives itself. It’s always hard when people leave, but there’s a time for that and our audience has always stayed relatively young, and more so now with TikTok.”
He added: “Change is good. The people we’re bringing in, I’m really excited about.”
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From Variety US