The host of the Saturday Night Live‘s Season 51 finale, Will Ferrell, exemplifies the typical trajectory of a successful SNL cast member — he spent seven seasons on the NBC late-night comedy program before embarking on a big Hollywood career.
Things have changed over the past decade, with popular cast members staying longer than the standard 6-7 years while juggling SNL with other film and TV projects.
There are currently six veterans who have been on the show for six or more seasons: Colin Jost (13), Michael Che (12), Mikey Day (10), Chloe Fineman (7), Andrew Dismukes (6) as well as Kenan Thompson, the longest-tenured SNL cast member ever at 23 years.
The Season 51 finale was a showcase for Day and standout featured player Ashley Padilla, who played leads opposite Ferrell in three live sketches — Day cracking up in all of them and also starring opposite Ferrell in a “Hormuz Jeff cut-for-time pre-recorded skit. Of the long-timers, Fineman and Dismukes also had a couple of showings while Thompson was surprisingly MIA, only doing a one-line cameo in the School Musical sketch.
Jost, who also reprised his Pete Hegseth impersonation in the Cold Open, and Che were greeted by an unusually big, long applause at the start of Weekend Update, making Che chuckle and Jost remark, “Oh God, Jesus.” It was the studio audience either expressing their support for the veteran duo, knowing that at this point any finale could be their last, or showing their excitement in anticipation of another Joke Swap (or both).
Jost and Che did deliver a full-length Joke Swap after the abbreviated version in the Christmas episode. It ended with the last joke written for Jost by Che involving a barber coming out to shave Jost’s head, which left the latter shellshocked, so the two didn’t do a proper sign-off, let alone something that could be interpreted as more than a regular, ‘See you next time.’ (Jost carried on with the gag and shocked his fellow cast members by joining the curtain call at the end in a bold cap.)
Unlike previous years, there hasn’t been much chatter about any of the veteran SNL cast members planning an exit, with most — if not all — believed to be open and willing to carry on.
Once again, decisions on cast changes will be made over the summer, with some potentially coming sooner rather than later. Like last year, I hear there has been little or no internal discussions about potential departures. Last year, boss Lorne Michaels had been focused on the season-long celebration of SNL’s 50th anniversary, culminating in two live specials in February. This year, he has been busy with another big undertaking, the recent launch of Saturday Night Live UK.
Some of the pending changes for the 16-member cast are fully expected, top among them a promotion for Season 51 MVP Padilla. Like Bowen Yang, she became a bonafide SNL star while still a featured player. SNL cast members start as featured players for two years before getting upped to full cast members if they are still on the show. Padilla, in her Year 2 as a featured player, will get a much deserved upgrade for Season 52. (While not as slam-dunk as Padilla, fellow second-year featured player Jane Wickline also has made a case to continue, which, if happens, will come with a main cast promotion.)
In another expected change, the sketch comedy will most certainly add a Black female cast member next season following veteran Ego Nwodim’s surprising Sept. 12 exit that came just a couple of weeks before the Oct. 4 premiere after the cast for Season 51 had already been set.
While SNL season finales no longer provide clear exit signs, there could offer some tea leaf reading. During the curtain call at the end of the Season 50 finale, Bowen Yang stood out with his lengthy, emotional embraces of fellow castmates Sarah Sherman and Nwodim. We didn’t know it at the time, but that turned out to be Yang (as well as Nwodim’s) last season finale as SNL cast members. Yang departed the show in December after seven and a half years, six and a half of them as a performer.
The Season 51 finale did not get a regular curtain call, and no cast members got a chance to get emotional and share the customary hugs and chats because, as soon as host Ferrell finished his “thank you”s to McCartney, surprise guests Molly Shannon and Aziz Ansari as well as Michaels and the cast, congratulating them on an “amazing season,” the camera followed McCartney as he moved to the adjascent stage for a third, closing performance, with the actors rocking and clapping from the side.
McCartney’s choice of song, “Coming Up,” was a reminder of what is to come on SNL between now and the fall — and of the last big SNL season finale sendoff for a longtime cast member when another English rock icon, Mick Jagger, serenaded departing Kristen Wiig with “Ruby Tuesday” in May 2012.
