‘Saturday Night Live’ shocker: Taran Killam, Jay Pharoah leaving before season 42

We always assume that there will be a little bit of cast turnover on “Saturday Night Live” year in and year out, but we are particularly shocked about the news that came out today.

As first reported by TVLine, longtime cast members Taran Killam and Jay Pharoah are each going to be departing the show after six years on the air, with the only reason at present being a desire to move on to other projects. Both guys produced some great work over the course of their run, and that’s why their sudden exit stuns us. Then again, we were somewhat surprised that Killam did not receive more airtime this past season, and one of his signature characters in Jebidiah Atkinson spent the entire season 41 on the sideline. We honestly don’t feel like either cast member was really used to their full potential.

Typically, longtime cast members get a much longer tribute before their big farewell. Specifically, we’re thinking back to how the show said goodbye to Kristen Wiig or to a certain extent Fred Armisen. Seth Meyers and Bill Hader got farewells that were fun in their own way.

If we were to extrapolate what’s next for “SNL” based on this, our feeling is that they will probably rely more on Beck Bennett, Kyle Mooney, and Kenan Thompson potentially more than ever. They may also bring in a new featured player to help carry more of the load, but the cast was honestly rather big to begin with and several cast members / featured players routinely get lost in the shuffle.

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