‘Saturday Night Live’: Nasim Pedrad joins Lorne Michaels pilot, could leave show

There’s some big news breaking now when it comes to another NBC departure, though early word suggests that this one is ultimately going to be much more amicable than what we are seeing unfold right now regarding Jay Leno and “The Tonight Show.”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Nasim Pedrad has signed on to be the female lead, a lazy grade school teacher named Jane who is desperate for a major change in her life, in the NBC comedy pilot starring “Saturday Night Live” writer John Mulaney and executive-produced by Lorne Michaels. This show is loosely based on Mulaney’s life, and also has a cast that includes Martin Short and Elliott Gould. (In other words, this sounds like comedy perfection and the best thing NBC has on their pilot schedule right now.)

If this show does get picked up as a series, it will mean that Pedrad’s tenure on “SNL” will be over, where she made famous some great impersonations such as Arianna Huffington and Kim Kardashian. However, her connections with NBC and with Lorne more or less guarantee that she will have opportunities to make guest appearances in the future if she is so asked. Michaels long has a history now of using his sketch-show alums in comedy projects; just look at Tina Fey in “30 Rock,” or Will Arnett and Maya Rudolph in “Up All Night.” (Hopefully, this show is more like the former than the latter.) We should find out its fate around the time of the upfront presentation in May.

What do you think about this casting, and will you miss Pedrad should she end up leaving “SNL” after this season? If you want to read some more news about the circus currently happening at NBC, you can do so by visiting the story over here.

Photo: NBC