It's been a strange time for Saturday Night Live, its cast, and its fans, which isn't something anyone would have expected after the late-night sketch series just celebrated its landmark 50th season. The exciting occasion was quickly followed up with what was rumored to be a "cast exodus" and resulted in the unfortunate exits of a handful of cast members before season 51.
The departure announcements came one after the other and began with the exit of writer Celeste Yim and continued with Devon Walker, Emil Wakim, Michael Longfellow, and veteran Heidi Gardner all no longer being part of the cast for season 51. Ego Nwodim also unexpectedly announced her decision to leave the show after seven seasons. Their exits made room for a group of five young, new cast members, and SNL vet Chloe Fineman has finally reacted to it all.
While attending an event for Michael Kors during New York Fashion week, Fineman spoke with Extra and broke her silence on the huge changes that have happened at Saturday Night Live. Fineman, who has been a standout cast member on the show for over half a decade, admitted that she hasn't fully processed the "shocking" shake-ups and joked about the young newbies joining the cast.
"Pretty wild, some shocking stuff, a little heartbreak, sadness. I haven't fully processed anything," Fineman began describing how she's been feeling after the cast exits. "But I will say, the show has such a turnover. I'm going into my seventh year, I've done the — I've done 'it,' you always experience it. But these people stay in your lives, and I am excited for the new people. It's so many people!"
Fineman worked closely with the cast members who aren't coming back for season 51, especially Heidi Garner, who had been on the show for eight years before her departure. After such a monumental season, which ended with perhaps the show's biggest episode ever celebrating its enduring legacy, it's completely understandable that processing these changes would take time.
In addition to the exits, SNL quickly replaced those who aren't returning with five new cast members. Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane, Ben Marshall, Kam Patterson, and Veronika Slowikowska have all been announced as the newcomers for season 51. Marshall joins his Please Don't Destroy collaborator Martin Herlihy, a writer, while John Higgins departs the show as a writer.
On the subject of the new cast members, Fineman joked that seeing how young the newbies are made her self conscious of her age (she's 37, if you're wondering). As she quipped to Extra, "When I saw how young the new cast was, I immediately got a laser. I mean, I was like, do I get the forever 35 facelift? I was googling their ages and I felt like I was in Death Becomes Her."
Along with Fineman, SNL season 51 also marks the returns of Kenan Thompson, Mikey Day, Bowen Yang, Sarah Sherman, Marcello Hernández, Andrew Dismukes, James Austin Johnson, Ashley Padilla, and Jane Wickline. The returning group and all of the newbies will have plenty of hilarious material to pull from between pop culture, current events, and late-night's chaos.
Saturday Night Live season 51 premieres Oct. 4 on NBC and streams on Peacock.