‘Saturday Night Live’ debate: Could anyone leave before season 41?

“Saturday Night Live” is over for the season, and we are now at a time that is not exactly our favorite: Wondering if we are going to see the same lineup of performers hitting the stage in the fall that we saw just this month.

The good news going into season 41 is that nobody announced that they were leaving before the finale. Even Kenan Thompson, who was rumored to be departing the show, made it clear that he is coming back for the fall. Therefore, we are probably going to see a very similar roster coming up that we saw this season. That’s perfectly fine with us; Kate McKinnon is a star, Bobby Moynihan is an ultimate scene-stealer, and Taran Killam and Cecily Strong still may have some really good stuff coming in the weeks ahead. The show also found potentially two future stars in Leslie Jones and Pete Davidson, who delivered great material during weekend update.

Now, let’s go ahead and talk briefly about some of the people we are worried about.

Sasheer Zamata – Other than Janelle, is there any other memorable character she has figured out? She’s great as the normal person in sketches, but she has not been used significantly ever since arriving on the show.

Beck Bennett – He at least has Baby Boss and Nick Offerman / Ron Swanson, but a good 80% of his Good Neighbor sketches have fallen flat. We feel like Kyle Mooney is bringing a little more to the show right now.

Michael Che – Is he working on “Weekend Update”? We feel mostly confident that he will stick around, thanks in part to the chemistry he built with characters like Riblet and Willie in the second half of the season. Still, Colin Jost is on more solid ground given his position in the writers room.

This time around, we feel like most of the changes are going to be minor. Maybe one or two of the people above leave, and “SNL” promotes a couple of featured players while hiring another person or two at the same time. We never want to see anyone leave; really, what we’d like to see if every person we’re worried about come up with some great ideas and then blow us away in the fall.

Another interesting thing to look for is the status of Mike O’Brien, who appeared sporadically in some really great pre-taped segments this season. Does he go back to being a featured player again?

If you did miss it, head over here to read our review of the season 40 finale! Also, you can sign up now to get some other TV updates on all we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: NBC.)