‘Saturday Night Live’: Lorne Michaels explains decision to hold auditions for black female cast member

The news broke late yesterday that not only is Lorne Michaels looking to bring on a new, black female cast member to “Saturday Night Live“, but he is looking to it soon. Secret auditions were held this week to try to find an ideal candidate, and this process is going to expedite quickly to make sure that one is added to the cast by early next year.

How fast is the process going? Let’s just say that Michaels is not messing around. The “SNL” guru told the New York Times after the information leaked that he is bringing up eight women to New York on Monday for the formal audition, and he is open to adding as many as two new cast members depending on how the auditions go. He also offers up some insight that suggests that there were two African-American women that he considered for a cast spot this summer who simply were not at the level that the show wanted them to be after a New York audition. It was then later that criticism began when his new cast members were basically multiple white men and a white woman.

It was also said that while Michaels felt like it was a good thing to have an African-American woman in the cast, he also added that this decision to cast only this demographic was not brought on completely by the criticism the show was receiving both before and after Kerry Washington’s stint hosting the show.

There is another cast spot that will need to be filled this year, as Seth Meyers is leaving for his new late-night show. Out of all the new hires made by the show this year, we anticipate not all of them are going to stick around. While this new addition and Noel Wells will both probably be retained, it wouldn’t shock us to lose one or two of the new guys who we still have a hard time (save for Kyle Mooney) of telling apart.

If you missed it earlier this week, click here to see the first preview of the show hosted by John Goodman this coming Saturday night.

Photo: NBC