By Faye James

Copyright hellomagazine

SNL creator Lorne Michaels has come under fire in recent weeks for a series of shocking cast cuts that left fans in disbelief. With seasoned stars like Ego Nwodim and Heidi Gardner leaving the show, as well as newer talent like Devon Walker, Emil Wakim and Michael Longfellow, many SNL diehards have been calling for its cancelation. Lorne broke his silence on the casting situation on the Emmys red carpet on Monday, explaining that it was normal for the show to continue fostering new talent.

“The show has always brought people in from different ages and different generations, and it’s how it revives itself,” he told Entertainment Tonight. “It’s always hard when people leave, but there’s a time for that, and our audience has always stayed relatively young, and more so now with TikTok. Change is good. The people we’re bringing in, I’m really excited about.”

SNL’s freshest faces include Ben Marshall, Veronika Slowikowska, Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane and Kam Patterson, while the show’s returning players are Mikey Day, Sarah Sherman, Marcello Hernández, Andrew Dismukes, James Austin Johnson, Ashley Padilla, Jane Wickline, Colin Jost, Michael Che, Kenan Thompson, Bowen Yang and Chloe Fineman. The mass exodus occurred after the SNL50 anniversary special, which won the Emmy for Best Variety Special on Monday night.

Lorne revealed that the project took two years to prepare, and “when it was finally over, that was both exciting and something of a relief”. SNL beat out other contenders, including Netflix’s Beyoncé Bowl, Apple Music’s Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show Starring Kendrick Lamar and The Oscars to nab the top prize.

“I was younger and I had a lot of dreams about what would happen in my life, and one of my dreams was that I’d still be doing the same show for 50 years,” Lorne told the audience during his acceptance speech. “I want to thank NBC and Comcast for their support. The show was two years in the planning, and they said, ‘We don’t care what it costs, as long as it’s good.'”

“Maybe that didn’t say that, maybe that’s just the way I heard it. I also wanted to thank the Academy for continuing to keep the word ‘television’ in their name, as long as it’s in that, we’ll keep showing up,” he added. While the departing cast members shared touching tributes about their time on the show, many viewers wondered at the decision to cut so many fan-favorites from the series.

Bowen Yang, one of SNL’s most famous players, opened up about his decision to stay despite worries that he planned to exit the show and pursue other interests. “I’ve always gone by the instinct of, do I have more to do? And I feel like I do,” he told People. “Even Lorne and I talked about it, and Lorne was like, ‘You have more to do,’ and that means a lot, because I even confessed to him. I was like, ‘I feel the audience is maybe getting sick of me.’ And he was like, ‘That’s not true. There’s more for you to do. I need you.'”

“I have to honor that. That man has changed my life, and I owe a lot of my life to that show. And I love working there, the people are the best. I really love each of them so much,” he added.