‘Saturday Night Live’: Noel Wells, John Milhiser both leaving; Mike O’Brien’s future unclear

It was inevitable following a rocky season of “Saturday Night Live” that there were going to be at least a few people who got the ax, and now, we are starting to see the full list of people not coming back on the NBC staple.

Following the departure of Brooks Wheelan from the show announced yesterday, both Noel Wells and John Milhiser, per Deadline, have each been let go from the series. We cannot say that either one of these departures is particularly shocking in the slightest. Milhiser was barely in the show at all throughout most of the season, which Jon Cryer being one of the few people that we remember him playing. Meanwhile, Wells had some early spark with a great impersonation of Lena Dunham and “Girls,” but got progressively more invisible as the show progressed and her “impressions,” including one as Nancy Grace, did not go over very well.

The status for now is still unclear about Mike O’Brien, who became a cast member after years aboard the writing staff. It’s possible that he could become a writer only again, but we hope that he gets the chance to stay put. He had some serious potential, even if he often didn’t get to show it.

While nothing has been said yet about Kyle Mooney and Beck Bennett, we feel like the two guys probably did enough through their first year of the show to stick around. We haven’t really seen enough of Sasheer Zamata yet to have one firm opinion one way or another.

There’s no real reason for these fired cast members to be upset. We shared a list of people yesterday who left the show after a year who went on to do great things, and it includes Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., and many others.

What do you think about the exit of these cast members? Are you surprised, disappointed, or indifferent to it in the end? Let us know your thoughts with a comment, and head over here if you do want to scoop some more TV news via our newsletter.

Photo: NBC