Cast members Jay Pharoah and Taran Killam will not return to Saturday Night Live for season 42.
TVLine first reported the news of the cast members not returning. Every summer there are question marks surrounding which cast members will return for another season and which ones will get the axe (or choose not to return on their own accord).
Additionally, NBC has confirmed that featured player John Rudnitsky will not return to Saturday Night Live after only one season.
Killam spoke to Uproxx saying that he wasn’t sure why he wouldn’t be returning to the show, saying that he had a seven year contract and was about to enter the final year. “I don’t know fully. I don’t know the other side of it. You sign for seven years, so I had one more year. I had sort of had it in my head I would make this upcoming year my last year, but then heard they weren’t going to pick up my contract. I was never given a reason why, really,” Killam says.
Jay Pharoah is a beloved member of the cast with audiences due to his uncanny impressions of such figures as Jay-Z, President Obama and Ben Carson just to name a few.
Of course the attention now turns to which other cast members may be leaving the show before it premieres in a few months as well as which, if any, new cast members will be added to replace those who are departing. There have been no significant rumblings about potential cast members being added thus far this summer, which is unusual compared to years past.
Things aren’t all gloom for current Saturday Night Live cast members. Leslie Jones just starred in the blockbuster Ghostbusters this summer, and has recently been dispatched to the Rio Olympics because of her hilarious coverage and commentary on social media.
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