Lorne Michaels on ‘SNL’ Cast Shake-Up: ‘It’s Always Hard When People Leave’ but ‘Change Is Good’

“Saturday Night Live” boss Lorne Michaels has finally addressed the sketch show’s huge cast shake-up ahead of Season 51, saying “change is good.”

The past few weeks have seen the departures of Heidi Gardner, Devon Walker, Michael Longfellow and Emil Wakim, plus the splitting up of Please Don’t Destroy as Ben Marshall was promoted to main cast, Martin Herlihy moved to writing staff and John Higgins left the show. Friday delivered another last-minute shock, with series vet Ego Nwodim exiting after it had been reported that she was staying on board.

While on the red carpet at the Emmys on Sunday, where “SNL50” won best variety special, Michaels was asked about the recent cast changes by Entertainment Tonight.

“The show has always brought people in from different ages and different generations and it’s how it revives itself,” Michaels said. “It’s always hard when people leave, but there’s a time for that and our audience has always stayed relatively young, and more so now with TikTok.”

He continued: “Change is good. The people we’re bringing in, I’m really excited about.”

Indeed, “SNL” is adding some new faces — some of whom came up on TikTok — with Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane, Kam Patterson and Veronika Slowikowska joining the cast. Other returning players include Mikey Day, Sarah Sherman, Marcello Hernández, Andrew Dismukes, James Austin Johnson, Ashley Padilla and Jane Wickline.

Asked about “SNL50,” Michaels admitted to ET that after planning it for nearly two years, “when it was finally over that was both exciting and something of a relief.”

“The regular season was exciting for lots of reasons, but also there was an election so those tend to be good years for us,” he added.