"Saturday Night Live" announced the cast of season 48, introducing four new cast members.
The late-night sketch comedy show took a hit at the end of last season amid dwindling ratings, when cast members Alex Moffat, Melissa Villaseñor and Aristotle Athari announced their decision to leave, as well as Aidy Bryant, Pete Davidson, Kate McKinnon and Kyle Mooney, who have been on the show for quite a while.
Now, a few weeks ahead of the season 48 premiere, NBC announced the new cast members. Marcello Hernandez, Molly Kearney, Michael Longfellow and Devon Walker are set to be joining the show.
They will join returning cast members Kenan Thompson, Heidi Gardner, Mikey Day, Andrew Dismukes, Chloe Fineman, James Austin, Punkie Johnson, Bowen Yang, Michael Che, Colin Jost, Ego Nwodim, Chris Redd, Sarah Sherman and Cecily Strong.
Some new cast members have a background in comedy. Hernandez was recently named the title of Just for Laughs New Face of Comedy and is the creative director of the comedy brand, Only in Dade.
Newcomer Walker was featured in Comedy Central’s "Up Next" and wrote for both "Everything’s Trash" and Netflix’s "Big Mouth." Kearney appears on the Prime Video series "A League of Their Own" and was also a part of Comedy Central’s 2019 "Up Next" showcase.
Lastly, Longfellow was named TBS’ comic to watch at the 2017 New York Comedy Festival, appeared on TBS’ "Conan" and on NBC’s "Bring the Funny."
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At the 2022 Emmy Awards in September, "SNL" creator and showrunner Lorne Michaels told Deadline it’s always hard when more than one cast member leaves the show at the same time, but it doesn’t stop them from seeking out new people and keeping the show going.
"Change years are always difficult but always exciting," he told the outlet. "There are new people. There are four new people at least for now."
The new season of "Saturday Night Live" is set to begin on October 1 with episodes to follow the following two Saturdays on October 8 and October 15, however there is no news yet as to who the hosts and musical guest will be for those shows.
