‘Saturday Night Live’ creator addresses major cast shakeup: ‘Change is good’

Lorne Michaels has addressed the major cast shakeup at “Saturday Night Live,” saying, “Change is good.”

While on the red carpet at the Emmys on Sunday, where “SNL50” won best variety special, Entertainment Tonight asked Michaels about the recent cast changes.

“The show has always brought people in from different ages and different generations and it’s how it revives itself,” Michaels said. “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.”

“Change is good,” he continued. “The people we’re bringing in, I’m really excited about.”

Lorne’s comments come after several “SNL” cast members have announced their departure from the iconic late night sketch comedy show.

Heidi Gardner, Devon Walker, Michael Longfellow, Emil Wakim and Ego Nwodim have all left “SNL.” The show also split up the sketch comedy trio Please Don’t Destroy, as Martin Herlihy moves to the writing staff and John Higgins leaves the show, Variety reported.

Returning cast members include Kenan Thompson, Michael Che, Colin Jost, Bowen Yang, Marcello Hernández, Sarah Sherman, Mikey Day, Andrew Dismukes, Chloe Fineman and James Austin Johnson.

Newcomers include Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane, Ben Marshall, Kam Patterson and Veronika Slowikowska.

“SNL” Season 51 premieres on Saturday, Oct. 4