SNL Faces Cast Crisis As Hader, Meyers Head For The Exits

There’s a bit of a cast crisis over at SNL. The show is saying goodbye to several of its veteran members and will almost have to start from scratch next year.

Kristin Wiig left the show last year and Bill Hader made his exit last Saturday. The show will also soon see the departure of Seth Meyers, who will be taking over Jimmy Fallon’s seat at Late Night, Jason Sudeikis and Fred Armisen.

Sudeikis and Armisen haven’t officially left the show but there are several reports circulating that the two veterans will not return next year.

That’s a lot of gaps to fill for when the show resumes next year.

But the SNL cast crisis may not be as dire as it seems. Variety notes that SNL has dealt with major cast turnovers before and they always seem to come out of it unscathed. The massive turnover could actually turn out to be a good thing.

Variety writes: “The prospect of losing at least four prominent cast members before 2013-14 might seem dire, but students of SNL history will note that past mass cast defections tend to be like forest fires: While the damage done is seemingly devastating, it actually has a counter intuitively restorative effect, clearing the way for future growth. And what’s more, the seeds for the next generation of SNL already seem to be sprouting in the current cast.”

SNL will be losing some of its most recognizable faces soon but the cast still has some bright spots. Jay Pharoah has already taken over the Obama character from Fred Armisen and Kate McKinnon and Bobby Moynihan have already found great characters with an Ellen Degeneres impersonation and Weekend Update’s drunk uncle.

Here’s a video of Bill Hader’s exit from the show.

Do you think SNL will survive it’s current cast crisis?