Saturday Night Live is getting a major face-lift! The NBC sketch-comedy show will return for its 39th season with six new cast members, The Los Angeles Times reports. Following the departures of Jason Sudeikis, Fred Armisen, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader and Andy Samberg, SNL has hired one woman and five men to join the late-night show, debuting on the Sept. 28 season premiere.
Beck Bennet, who chats with cute children about current events in AT&T’s “It’s Not Complicated campaign will join the cast, along with his fellow Good Neighbor sketch group member Kyle Mooney.
“7 Minutes in Heaven” Web series star Michael Patrick O’Brien has also signed on. He has been a writer on SNL since 2009. John Milhiser, an Upright Citizens Brigade performer, and Brooks Wheelan, a stand-up comedian from L.A., have also been hired.
Lastly, the lone female newcomer is Noel Wells, who has her own popular YouTube channel in which she impersonates actress Zooey Deschanel.
In addition to the new hires, the “Weekend Update” desk will be getting a makeover. Cecily Strong, who made her SNL debut last year, will join Seth Meyers on the popular segment, creator Lorne Michaels told The New York Times. Strong, 29, previously appeared on “Weekend Update” as a visitor known as “The Girl You Wished You Hadn’t Started a Conversation With at a Party.”
Meyers, 39, will leave SNL in February to host Late Night on NBC four nights a week. Michaels told the Times that he’d like Meyers to stay on “Weekend Update” even after he leaves. “Very excited about the new Weekend Update co-anchor,” Meyers tweeted Sunday. “As for The Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started a Conversation with, it’s prob safe to assume that she died somewhere, mid-conversation.”