NEW YORK (AP) — Canadian writer Celeste Yim and comics Devon Walker and Emil Wakim are leaving “Saturday Night Live," among the first of what could be several departures as the storied program prepares for its 51st season.
“Me and the show did three years together, and sometimes it was really cool,” Walker wrote Monday on Instagram. “Sometimes it was toxic as hell. But we did what we made the most of what it was, even amidst all of the dysfunction.”
The note in his post was titled: “wait ... did he quit or did he get fired?”
On Wednesday, Wakim announced he wouldn't be returning, and indicated he had been let go, calling it “a gut punch of a call to get.” Unlike Walker, a member of the more established repertory player group, Wakim was a featured player who joined the show just last season.
“every time i scanned into the building i would think how insane it is to get to work there. it was the most terrifying, thrilling, and rewarding experience of my life and i will miss it dearly and all the brilliant people that work there that made it feel like a home,” he wrote in an all-lowercase Instagram post that thanked “SNL” creator Lorne Michaels.
“i was so lucky to bring some of myself in there and say things i believed in and i’m excited for whatever chapter comes next,” Wakim wrote. “here’s to making more art without compromise.”
The announcements follow Michaels saying that he anticipates changes following the show's historic 50th season. No cast members had announced their departure following the season's conclusion. In an interview with Puck that ran last week, Michaels answered “yes” when asked if he expected to “shake things up.”
“It’ll be announced in a week or so,” he said then.
Representatives for “Saturday Night Live” did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Toronto-bred writer Yim announced they were leaving after five seasons.
Yim, the show's first openly nonbinary writer, posted last weekend on Instagram that the job was a dream come true “BUT was also grueling and I slept in my office every week BUT my friends helped me with everything BUT I got yelled at by random famous men BUT some famous girls too BUT I loved it and I laughed every day and it's where I grew up.”
Michaels told Puck at least one cast member was certain to be back: James Austin Johnson, who plays President Donald Trump.
Since its debut in 1975, the NBC program has reinvented itself often, with performers over the past 50 years ranging from John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd to Kate McKinnon and Kenan Thompson. The 51st season will premiere Oct. 4.
The Associated Press
