\n<\/p>\n
\n\tAfter a string of departures, Saturday Night Live <\/em>has confirmed its Season 51 cast, with Bowen Yang, Kenan Thompson, and Weekend Update <\/em>co-hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che among those set to return.<\/p>\n \n\tAccording to multiple reports, much of last year\u2019s main cast will be back at Studio 8H this fall, including Ego Nwodim, Chloe Fineman, Marcello Hernandez, Andrew Dismukes, Sarah Sherman, and James Austin Johnson (who, of course, handles the show\u2019s all-important Donald Trump impression). Two of last year\u2019s new featured players, Ashley Padilla and Jane Wickline, are also returning, though it\u2019s unclear if they\u2019ve been promoted to the main cast. (Reps for SNL<\/em> did not immediately return a request for comment.)<\/p>\n \n\tThe confirmation that Jost and Che are returning, as well, comes after a lot of speculation that Season 50 might be their last. Jost has been working at SNL<\/em> since 2005 when he was hired as a writer, and he\u2019s been a cast member for 12 seasons now, making him the fourth longest-serving cast member in the show\u2019s history. Che, meanwhile, joined SNL<\/em> in 2013 as a writer and was named Jost\u2019s co-anchor the following year. The pair are the longest-serving Weekend Update <\/em>anchors, with Season 51 set to mark their 12th season together behind the desk.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tSNL<\/em> is also set to welcome many new featured players this year, including Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane, Kam Patterson, and Veronika Slowikowska. Ben Marshall, who spent the past several years primarily doing pre-tape sketches as part of the comedy trio Please Don\u2019t Destroy, was also promoted to the featured players cast.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n \n\tWith all these new additions, SNL<\/em> also saw a number of departures. The biggest exit was Heidi Gardner, who enjoyed a very successful eight-year run on the show. During season 49, she participated in more sketches than any other cast member, and she was the longest-tenured female cast member during Season 50.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tDevon Walker and Michael Longfellow are also departing after three seasons, and Emil Wakim after one season. Marshall\u2019s promotion to the cast also marked an end for Please Don\u2019t Destroy on SNL<\/em>, with John Higgins set to depart the show and Martin Herlihy joining the writing staff.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After a string of departures, Saturday Night Live has confirmed its Season 51 cast, with Bowen Yang, Kenan Thompson, and Weekend Update co-hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che among those set to return. According to multiple reports, much of last year\u2019s main cast will be back at Studio 8H this fall, including Ego Nwodim, Chloe<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[12225,1711,11680,6659,12227,132,446,5949,225,12226],"class_list":{"0":"post-19902","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-bowen","9":"tag-cast","10":"tag-colin","11":"tag-confirmed","12":"tag-jost","13":"tag-live","14":"tag-night","15":"tag-saturday","16":"tag-season","17":"tag-yang"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n