Leaving Saturday Night Live isn’t as simple as packing up a dressing room. For many cast members, it's a seismic shift with little guidance or support. That’s the reality two former cast members, Chloe Troast and Punkie Johnson, opened up about during a cast farewell party in New York City ahead of SNL’s Season 51, and life after the show feels disorienting to say the least.
Speaking exclusively to People at the event, Johnson and Troast pulled back the curtain on what it really feels like not to be returning as part of the Season 51 cast and being let go from one of TV’s most iconic institutions ahead of its 2025 TV premiere. While Johnson, who announced her departure, described it more as a “mutual” agreement, the vibe from both women suggests it hit more like a firing. Punkie explained:
I had to figure out how to understand the difference between, all right, cool, you did something really great. And now it's okay for you to just go through the motions and just no rush and figure out what's next for you. It's okay for you to figure that out. . . . It's very hard to understand a place like that. They just throw you in the water — you better know how to swim. They don't give you no life jacket.
For Johnson, who spent four seasons at Studio 8H, the experience was a mix of pressure and growth. The comedian continued:
[It] builds something inside of you that makes you so strong. I feel like I could go out in Hollywood and handle anything because I handled every piece of adversity that went on in that building. I don't think nothing could really break me no more because they honestly really built me up and made me strong mentally.
There was a bloodbath over at Rockefeller Plaza over the summer, as SNL faced a ton of cast shakeups. Other former cast members echoed similar sentiments to Punkie Johnson. Michael Longfellow called his three-season run “the best three years of my life” in an Instagram post, though he confirmed he won’t be returning. Emil Wakim, who spent just one season on the show, described his exit as a “gut punch,” while Devon Walker referred to the experience as “toxic as hell... but we made a fucked up lil family.”
The emotional goodbyes come as SNL entered its milestone 51st season, with a revamped cast including five newcomers: Veronika Slowikowska, Kam Patterson, Ben Marshall (of Please Don’t Destroy), Tommy Brennan, and Jeremy Culhane. The new class made its debut during the Oct. 4 premiere, hosted by Bad Bunny and featuring musical guest Doja Cat, this past weekend.
Season 51 wasted no time diving into controversy. The cold open skewered the recent Jimmy Kimmel suspension and imagined Donald Trump (played by James Austin Johnson) setting his sights on SNL. The sketch, which you can watch below, included Trump threatening FCC action over critical jokes, with Mikey Day appearing as FCC Chairman Brendan Carr in a surreal twist.
If you missed SNL's 51st season premiere, don’t worry — it’s now streaming with a Peacock subscription.
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