A Saturday Night Live era is ending when it comes to one cast member who skyrocketed to fame over his years on the NBC show. Pete Davidson, who joined the ensemble at the age of 20 back in 2014, is reportedly departing the long-running comedy series, and fans don’t have much time left to see him as part of the cast.
Pete Davidson is expected to leave Saturday Night Live following the Season 47 finale, according to Variety, which airs on May 21 at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC. That means the reports of his departure broke just over 24 hours before his expected final episode as a cast member.
Davidson emerged from the pack on SNL over the years after primarily appearing in “Weekend Update” sketches early on. He worked his way up to doing impressions, including a memorable sketch back in 2021 when he played Rami Malek during Malek’s hosting gig. (Malek played Davidson.) As of Season 47, he is undoubtedly one of the stars with the most name recognition.
In fact, Pete Davidson undoubtedly has plenty of name recognition even for those who don’t make a habit of watching SNL. His engagement to Ariana Grande may not have lasted, but it shot him to a new kind of stardom with the connection to the pop icon. Following Grande, he began a relationship with Kim Kardashian after her hosting debut. If that hadn’t already been news enough, Kanye West’s reaction and social media comments about Davidson would have done the trick for him to end up in the limelight for his personal life.
His time at SNL hasn’t been without incident, notably including a “Weekend Update” sketch back in 2018 that involved Davidson making a joke about congressional candidate Dan Crenshaw losing an eye in Afghanistan. That controversy blew over when Crenshaw himself came on a future installment of “Weekend Update” to get his revenge and have fun roasting the comedian. It also remains to be seen whether Davidson is the first of multiple longtime SNL stars who will depart after Season 47.
At the time of writing, neither Davidson nor any SNL producers have commented on the news of his upcoming departure. It should be interesting to see if the Season 47 finale acknowledges that he’ll be leaving – or gets in some parting jokes at his expense. The comedian leaving Saturday Night Live doesn’t mean that fans will lose him from TV in the long run.
Davidson is set to write and star in an upcoming Peacock series called Bupkis, with SNL creator and legend Lorne Michaels on board as executive producer. The show will tell a fictionalized version of Davidson’s story, and is assembling a cast including The Sopranos alum Edie Falco, who will play Pete Davidson’s character’s mom.
Tune in to NBC on Saturday, May 21 to catch the Season 47 finale of SNL that is expected to be Pete Davidson’s last. Natasha Lyonne of Russian Doll is on board as host, with Japanese Breakfast as musical guest. If you’re looking for some viewing options once Saturday Night Live has ended for the season, be sure to check out our 2022 TV premiere schedule.
