Who’s Leaving & Who’s Coming Back for “Saturday Night Live” Season 47

Beck Bennett at Sundance Film Festival in 2017.
Beck Bennett at Sundance Film Festival in 2017. Photo by Debby Wong/Shutterstock (7977579as)

Rumors about potential departures of several Saturday Night Live cast members have been circling around all summer long, and we finally know who’s not coming back. Beck Bennett and Lauren Holt are leaving the legendary sketch show, while the rest of the cast is set to return.

Holt has only been with SNL for one season, but Bennett’s departure is quite a shocker since he became one of the show’s key players since joining the cast in 2013. He said his goodbyes on social media and expressed gratitude to “remarkable people and incredible experiences that completely changed [his] life.”

The final episode of Season 46 left fans of the show wondering if Aidy Bryant, Pete Davidson, Kate McKinnon, and Cecily Strong are leaving the show, but they’re all set to come back. Michael Che, Colin Jost, Mikey Day, Chloe Fineman, Heidi Gardner, Alex Moffat, Kyle Mooney, Ego Nwodim, Chris Redd, Kenan Thompson, Melissa Villaseñor, Bowen Yang, Punkie Johnson, and Andrew Dismukes will also return.

Saturday Night Live cast will include three new featured players when the show returns to NBC this weekend—Aristotle Athari, James Austin Johnson, and Sarah Sherman. They’ll make their debut during the Season 47 premiere on October 2nd, hosted by Owen Wilson.