“Gut Punch of a Call to Get”

Saturday Night Live castmember Emil Wakim is leaving after one season.

Wakim, who joined the storied NBC late-night sketch series in 2024 for the milestone 50th season, announced the news on social media Wednesday, explaining that it wasn’t his choice to exit.

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“It was a gut punch of a call to get,” the Lebanese-American comedian wrote in a post on Instagram (below), “but i’m so grateful for my time there.”

Wakim said he was celebrating a friend’s birthday at Six Flags when he got the news and “went on a really emotional walk through bugs bunny park and stared out across daffy duck lake thinking about life.”

Reflecting on his time at the beloved institution, he described his SNL run as “the most terrifying, thrilling and rewarding experience of my life and i will miss it dearly and all the brilliant people that work there that made it feel like a home.”

He ended his note by saying, “Here’s to making more art without compromise.”

Wakim joined season 50 along with Ashley Padilla and Jane Wickline as a featured player for 2024-25. The season ran with most of the previous season’s ensemble intact, after Punkie Johnson, Molly Kearney and featured player Chloe Troast announced their departures.

Wakim’s exit ahead of the 51st season follows Devon Walker announcing yesterday that he is also leaving the show after three seasons. Walker announced that he, too, was not asked back, writing in an Instagram post on Tuesday that “me and baby broke up.” He further wrote, “To me, jobs in this industry feel like a bunch of little marriages. Some of ‘em last for a long time, but most of them are fleeting. Permanent until they’re not. That’s the deal. You know what it is when you sign up.”

In an interview with Puck last week, executive producer Lorne Michaels said that some changes were likely coming. He did, however, confirm that James Austin Johnson would continue playing President Donald Trump.

Prior to SNL, Wakim performed stand-up on The Tonight Show and at the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival, where he was named a “New Face of Comedy” in 2022. He’s also opened for comics Roy Wood Jr., Nikki Glaser and Hasan Minhaj.

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