There were jokes about cast member Sarah Sherman leaving and Weekend Update‘s Colin Jost replacing Saturday Night Live boss Lorne Michaels, there were long hugs during the curtain call but no real indications of the changes to come during the Season 50 finale of the venerable NBC sketch comedy series.
And changes are likely to come with a 17-member cast that features six veterans who have been on the show for seven or more seasons: Jost, Michael Che, Mikey Day, Heidi Gardner, Ego Nwodim as well as Kenan Thompson, the longest-tenured SNL cast member in history at 22 years.
Saturday Night Live stopped giving longtime cast members sendoffs in the season finale like the star-studded goodbye Kristen Wiig received in May 2012 after seven years on the show. There were flowers during tonight’s curtain call but they were from Jost to the finale’s host, his wife Scarlett Johansson. (You can watch it below.)
Of the current long-timers, only Che has said publicly that they would be leaving after this season, but it was during a standup performance, and he has also said that in the past. He didn’t give any hints of a pending exit in tonight’s closer.
Several other veteran SNL cast members have alluded in interviews and social media posts that they might leave but there were no signs of that in the finale, like the way Kate McKinnon got choked up in her final episode.
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It was largely business as usual. And, surprisingly, it was one of the busiest current cast members from the more recent SNL additions, Sarah Sherman, who was called out by Johansson in her opening monologue.
“It’s been a great season / and Sarah is leaving / we’re all gonna miss you next year,” Johansson sang, to which shocked Sherman responded, “Wait, what? Did you guys hear something? What do you mean leaving?”
It was a joke; Sherman likely was picked because she is not a departure suspect. During the curtain call at the end of the episode, Sherman was one of two cast members Bowen Yang was seen giving lengthy embraces to, along with Nwodim. While he has been an SNL cast member for six seasons, Yang has been on the show for seven, having started as a writer. And he has seen his feature career explode, opening new opportunities for one of SNL‘s MVPs.
The finale also addressed wide spread speculation that Jost is among the top contenders to succeed Michaels at the helm of SNL when he retires. Michaels had suggested that would leave after the show’s milestone 50th anniversary but subsequently walked that back, saying that there was “no immediate plan” for him to step down.
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In the latest edition of Weekend Update‘s infamous — and hugely popular — semi-annual Joke Swap between Che and Jost, the latter had to open with this line he was made to read:
“It’s SNL‘s 50th season, so I want to take a moment to say something to our boss, Lorne Michaels. Lorne, retire b*tch! Let me run the show.”
Jost revisited the subject at the end of the segment when he was prompted to put on red lipstick before saying another line written for him by Che, “Lorne, I’ll do anything to run this show.”
Later, during the curtain call, Jost’s wife, Johansson, gave Michaels a shoutout, congratulating him on SNL‘s 50-year run. “You are a singular man, we love you and thank you,” she said.
It is unclear when we will get news on departing SNL cast members. Traditionally, veterans who decide to leave make the announcement in the weeks following the season finale. After taking some time off, Michaels gets back to it by July, with decisions who would not be asked back usually made in August-early September.
