The Cast Continuity on ‘SNL’s Weekend Update Is Shockingly Divisive

Lorne Michaels’ anxiously awaited Saturday Night Live cast shake-up was more of a light wiggle, and a surprisingly significant number of SNL fans are furious that they’re going to have to endure another season of “Weekend Update” joke swaps.

Late last month, Michaels teased that, ahead of the October 4th premiere of Saturday Night Live Season 51, his annual reshaping of the SNL staff would give the show a fresh look following its historic and overly nostalgic half-centennial season. However, compared to past SNL off-seasons, this year’s turnover was surprisingly tame — the departure of eight-season veteran Heidi Gardner and two-thirds of the digital shorts group Please Don’t Destroy headlined the non-returns, while the exit of underutilized hot boys Michael Longfellow, Emil Wakim and Devon Walker ruffled the feathers of the show’s thirstiest viewers.

Now, with the newcomers announced and the annual exodus officially at its end, many Saturday Night Live fans feel that the show didn’t change enough during this summer’s shake-up, especially at the top of the 30 Rock food chain. Despite how Michael Che has spent the last four seasons pretending that he’s finally going to quit SNL, he and Colin Jost are sticking around for another year, infuriating their shockingly numerous haters who wish that “Weekend Update” would finally undergo a full reboot.

Of course, it goes without saying that not everybody in the fandom shares these pessimistic Saturday Night Live fans' feelings on Michaels keeping the Che/Jost anchor team intact for another season of “Weekend Update.” To many, many SNL fans, Che and Jost’s joke-swapping bit is consistently the highlight of each new season, and having the same steady hands on the show’s most consistently popular segment is a testament to Michaels’ good judgment. 

One Che-and-Jost-positive Saturday Night Live fan wrote of the surprising backlash to the news that the duo will continue to man the “Weekend Update” desk, “all of my oomfs have been so upset about this so i’m trying to be really quiet about how happy i am about this.”

At the same time, both Jost and (mainly) Che have spent the last couple of years complaining about the pressures of being SNL’s unofficial headliners for this long, so maybe a “Weekend Update” switch-up would have been the best outcome for all parties involved. After all, the chairs that once held the likes of Norm Macdonald, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Seth Meyers and so many more SNL legends are inarguably the best seats in the house, and any one of SNL’s younger, more grateful comedians would kill for a chance to take over the gig.

Nevertheless, for the foreseeable future, Che and Jost will maintain their posts, and, just to spite their haters, Che may just make Jost tell a bunch of racist jokes in Season 51 — who will be getting stale then?