Saturday Night Live Cast Shake-Up Continues With Five New Stars Added, But Reportedly Bad News For Please Don't Destroy Fans

After a week of Saturday Night Live shaking up its cast with multiple exits, we've officially learned who will be joining the Season 51 cast. Ahead of the show's premiere on the 2025 TV schedule, five comedians have been added to the lineup, and that includes Ben Marshall, who is famously a member of Please Don't Destroy. However, speaking of that group, this update also comes with some reported bad news that we have to talk about.

SNL Added Five New Comedians Ahead Of Season 51, Including A Please Don’t Destroy Member

According to SNL, five people have been added to the Season 51 cast. This includes Veronika Slowikowska, Kam Patterson, Jeremy Culhane, Tommy Brennan and PDD's Ben Marshall.

This update comes after it was announced that long-time cast member Heidi Gardner would exit, and that, much to fans' dismay, Michael Longfellow, Emil Wakim and Devon Walker would be leaving too.

However, on the bright side, five new folks will join the team. You might recognize them, too. Slowikowska is known for her work on Instagram and the show Tires. Culhane has made a name for himself on Dropout TV. Patterson is a stand-up who was also in Kevin Hart’s 72 Hours. And Brennan has done his stand-up on The Tonight Show.

Ben Marshall might be the most recognizable addition, though, if you’re a big SNL fan, because this will mark a big move for the Please Don’t Destroy team. He joined the show as a writer alongside his partners, John Higgins and Martin Herlihy, back in 2021 during Season 47, and since then, their digital shorts have turned into viral and beloved SNL sketches.

So, there’s a lot of new and exciting voices joining the team ahead of SNL’s 51st season. However, with this good news comes some bad news too.

While One Please Don’t Destroy Member Joins The Cast, Another Is Reportedly Leaving The Show

Again, while it's fantastic news that one of the members of Please Don't Destroy has joined the on-screen talent after being a writer for years, it comes with a sad update. According to a report from Vulture, not all the members of the group are returning to SNL.

According to sources close to the show, John Higgins will allegedly be leaving to "pursue acting projects." Meanwhile, Martin Herlihy will stay on as a writer.

This will surely cause a shift on the show, considering that these three were best known as a trio who collaborated with massive stars like Bad Bunny (I’m sure you remember “Bad Bunny Is Shrek”) and Taylor Swift (“Three Sad Virgins” truly is a classic). Now, it seems like we’ll only be seeing one of them on the screen when SNL returns on October 4.

So, all around, we're entering a new era with the Please Don't Destroy boys, and it comes with some major change as one of them steps in front of the camera, one stays behind it, and one, reportedly, leaves Studio 8H permanently.

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Riley Utley is the Weekend Editor at CinemaBlend. She has written for national publications as well as daily and alt-weekly newspapers in Spokane, Washington, Syracuse, New York and Charleston, South Carolina. She graduated with her master’s degree in arts journalism and communications from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. Since joining the CB team she has covered numerous TV shows and movies -- including her personal favorite shows Ted Lasso and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. She also has followed and consistently written about everything from Taylor Swift to Fire Country, and she's enjoyed every second of it.

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