Saturday Night Live Reportedly Losing Pete Davidson, Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, and Kyle Mooney

A major shakeup is reportedly taking place with the cast of Saturday Night Live, as Pete Davidson, Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, and Kyle Mooney are all expected to exit the long-running late-night comedy. Deadline reports the four featured stars will leave Saturday Night Live at the conclusion of Season 47. The report states there could even be a big farewell from the entire group exiting on the Saturday, May 21st season finale with guest-host Natasha Lyonne. An earlier report listed Pete Davidson stepping down from SNL this weekend after the season finale.

Creator Lorne Michaels has hinted at some major changes coming to Saturday Night Live, calling this a "year of change" in recent remarks. Season 47 has the distinction of having the largest cast in SNL history, with 21 stars and eight cast members entering at least their eighth season. The cast members who have been on longer than eight seasons include Davidson, McKinnon, Bryant, Mooney, Michael Che, Colin Jost, Cecily Strong, and Kenan Thompson, who has the Saturday Night Live record as the cast member with the longest tenure.

A number of Saturday Night Live stars have seen their screen times diminish as they take on outside projects, which is something Lorne Michael has relaxed on over the years. Of course, Michaels tends to be named an executive producer on a number of these projects, including Pete Davidson's Peacock series Bupkis. It landed a straight-to-series order and added Edie Falco as the mother of Davidson's character.

Kate McKinnon has been on SNL since 2012 and most recently took time off to film Peacock's Joe. vs. Carole, based on the Tiger King story where she played Carole Baskins. Saturday Night Live added Aidy Bryant in 2012, and Kyle Mooney in 2013. 

Saturday Night Live has seen a surge in ad prices over the years, increasing its importance to the bigwigs over at NBC. Even though it has a late-night timeslot on Saturdays, streaming has allowed SNL to be live in the U.S. no matter your time zone. This means even as east coast watchers are tuning in around midnight, the west coast is catching Saturday Night Live during primetime. Its 2020-2021 season ranked as the most-watched entertainment program on TV among viewers aged 18-49, a highly-coveted demographic for advertisers. 

What do you think about these potential shakeups to the Saturday Night Live cast? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!