‘Saturday Night Live’ Loses Forte, Adds Three New Cast Members

Sad news hit the comedy world last week, as it was announced that Saturday Night Live cast member for just over 8 years Will Forte will not be returning for the show’s upcoming 36th season. But, much like the circle of life, where we lose one, we get another…or in this case, three new lives in the SNL world.

No word on whether it was Forte’s decision to leave or Lorne Michaels’ way of mixing things up right before the new season, as he’s prone to do. What we do know, however, is that Forte’s publicist says that he’s “eternally grateful” to Michaels, along with the cast and crew.

With that said, a new report is out that the show will be getting 3 new faces come this fall. From the NY Post:

Taran Killam, a refugee from the cast of the long-running sitcom “Scrubs,” and two young comedians from Chicago — Paul Brittain and Vanessa Bayer — have been signed to the cast.

Among the new cast members, Killam, 28, is by far the best known. He became free when the proposed series he’d been working on — the Arianna Huffington-produced comedy called “Freshman,” about three first-term congressmen living together in the same D.C. apartment — was not picked up by ABC.

Brittain and Bayer are little known outside Chicago, where they have starred in stage comedies and done stand-up.

While the new of Forte leaving is sad enough on it’s own, other reports are coming in that Seth Meyers, Andy Samberg, Jason Sudeikis and Kenan Thompson are still up in the air as to whether or not they will return next season.