Saturday Night Live has gone through many transitional seasons over the years, trying out new casts and new ideas. The process of building featured players into Not Ready for Primetime Players has been in play for years, and with a bunch of cast members leaving the show this spring, the fall season will feature a brand new batch of featured players, once more. On Friday, it was revealed that five names are in talks to join SNL this fall.
Among the five names, there is only one female addition, which may seem a little sexist, until you consider the number of females that were added last year and the number of males who left the series this spring. With that in mind, adding a slew of male names actually makes sense. Still, as a chick, I’m most excited about the potential female addition, Noël Wells, who you may know from The Do-Deca Pentathlon and other acting gigs.
The male names that are being tossed around include Michael Patrick O’Brien, who actually has experience with the show. He’s been working as a writer on SNL for the past four years and it looks like he’ll finally be given a bigger chance to take the stage. O’Brien should also be able to write for himself, which could increase his chances to pop up more on the live sketch show. The other potential newbies include Beck Bennett (the dude from AT&T’s awesome “it’s not complicated” commercials), Kyle Mooney, and John Milhiser. The latter three, as well as Wells, have sprung up in the comedy scene at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. You can check out Bennett’s work, below.
According to Deadline, the names are currently being tossed around over at NBC, although the network has yet to make an official statement about the latest cast members. It may take a little while to make these big decisions and finalize contracts, but SNL will need to figure it out sooner rather than later, as the sketch show is expected to return to the schedule in September.
The news comes several months after the spring finale of SNL, which saw Bill Hader and Fred Armisen give their last performances as cast members on the stage. Additionally, over the summer, Jason Sudeikis announced he is officially leaving the series and Seth Meyers will quit sometime late this fall in order to gear up for his late night series, where he will be taking over Jimmy Fallon's current timeslot. Changes are afoot on the veteran late night program, but I can’t wait to see how the new cast members play out.
