It was a difficult, rebuilding season at Saturday Night Live, and boss Lorne Michaels promised there would be casting changes for next fall. The first and widely expected one — Brooks Wheelan has been let go after one, hardly memorable season as a featured player with very little screen time. He announced the news on Twitter. “Had a blast and loved every second of it,” Wheelan wrote. “I’m totally honored to be able to make this next joke… FIRED FROM NEW YORK IT’S SATURDAY NIGHT!”
Donald Trump Talks “Tunnel Technology” And Hillary Clinton As “Bigot” In Interview With…
Marvin Kaplan Dies: ‘Alice’ & ‘Top Cat’ Actor Was 89
Fox Director Fellows Chosen For Comedy & Drama Apprenticeship Programs
Revolt CEO Keith T. Clinkscales Departs
Eli Roth Bringing Killer Clowns To Halloween Horror Nights 2016; Digital Genre Anthology Series ‘Dark/Web’ Coming From…
‘Stranger Things’ Ranks High On List Of Netflix’s Most-Watched Shows
Brooks is a talented guy. SNL is a series in an identiy crisis. He should just keep doing what he does best — being funny.
I’ve prayed for Brooks’ demise since he unfollowed me on Instagram. ROT IN HELL, TRAITOR
Bummer. He was solid when he appeared on weekend update and his 12 Years a Slave sketch was one of the funniest of the year.
Weird this show’s not funnier, they have like 30 writers…
Talented guy cast in a tough season. The women are ruling SNL – see Emmy nom for Kate McKinnon. Good luck!
Oh sure. Fire the cute one.
At this point the relic of a fossil that needs to be fired is Lorne Michaels.
No surprise there. I suspect we’ll here similar announcements from/about John Milhiser, Mike O’Brien (although dating Cecily Strong might help), and possible Noel Wells
O’Brien is also a writer on the show and has carved out a certain niche for himself. Wells got a decent amount of screen time last season, and she played a lot of celebrity characters, which is something SNL uses a lot.
who?
Poor guy. He probably just wasn’t ready for this kind of platform. He’s a decent standup but he isn’t really an actor or a writer. What about his team? Are they really going to be able to do anything for him now that this happened? He should clean house and start fresh with a real team, not the starter squad he has now.
I smell a poacher…
This is too bad. I thought in terms of potential this Brooks has it. I would cast him. He’s certainly better than most of the other newbies. I’m surprised Millheiser has made it. He’s shockingly not ready for the big leagues.
Actually disagree on Milhiser – strong writer to boot, I’ve seen him dozens of times and his impressions are killer. Give him screen time and he’ll prove it.
Every time he’s on screen you can see the fear in his eyes. Maybe he’s too young. Good writer or not, that fear transmits.
What impressions does Milhiser do besides Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong and Jon Cryer? It’s not like the world is demanding more of that. Then again, Jay Pharoah does some great impressions of better-known people, but SNL hasn’t really capitalized on that. (Except maybe his Kanye thing, but I’ve never enjoyed the Kanye/Kardashian sketches — and we won’t see that much since Nasim Pedrad is leaving.)
That’s what happens. When SNL feels that diversity comes first, they have to fire talented white guys.
Oh, just stop it. He was one of 7 new cast members added last season, including 4 white dudes. Wheelan is talented, but he just didn’t break out like other SNL newbies. Anyone who follows SNL isn’t really surprised by this.
Yeah that’s definitely it. Couldn’t be that he wasn’t funny and that’s why he got little screen time. It’s the ONE black girl they hired that made this happen. Get a life, loser.
Hey Sorry-excuse-for-a-human-being, what a miserable racist you are. You’re going to blame the lone Black actress on the show for an actor getting fired? Something that happens every season. Pigs like you are why the Conservative Right are viewed as racists and why Republicans will never win a National election. Keep attacking Blacks, Hispanics, women, students, the working poor. They all vote.
I’m not sure how he got hired in the first place. The only ones that seemed to make any sense were Noel Wells and Beck Bennette. But he’ll be fine if he actually has the goods. Everyone will be willing to meet with him and jump on it. And if he doesn’t have the goods, we’ll never hear from him again.
No more Jebidiah Atkinson!! Damn… Get rid of others who are just goofy looking multicultural NBC tagalogs with no talent. There are several of those on SNL yet if anyone says that, and lets be honest I am not the only one thinking it, then some group screams racism or similar. Comedy must come from people who have a talent for being funny and such. Not because NBC made you hire someone in a certain demographic to satisfy some special interest group. SNL is a huge disappointment!
Jebidiah Atkinson is played by Taran Killiam, so you’re good.
Jebidiah Atkinson is Taryn Killam, who is solid
aa… Jebidiah is played by Taran Killam, not Brooks Wheelan.
Jebediah Atkinson is played by Taren Killam, not Wheelan. He’s also the funniest new character since Stefon.
he doesn’t do Jebidiah. that’s Taran Killam.
Brooks’ only contribution was either playing himself (game show & weekend update) and being a background person. Not surprised he was let go.
I think the first to be fired should be the writers before any of the featured players. No matter how talented the feature player is, if the writing is very poor (which it is and has been for a long time), there’s not much the featured player can do. They can’t polish a turd.
Why not keep him on set at all times so we have something to look at. You know, the cut away of the gorgeous guy laughing at the funny lines….. That way we will know when to laugh …….. Hahahahahahaaaaaa
good one
Not smart to advertise being fired. Rookie mistake.
Twitter!!!!
Well if they gave him more screen time, we could have seen if he was talented or not. Why fire the cute one? I would have still watched even if all he could do was make sock puppets.
They should also get rid of Colin Jost.
Not always the end of the world getting fired from SNL. For every Charlie Rocket there’s a Jenny Slate.
File this under “2014 SNL Firings” because there will be more.
Brooks must have talent to be selected by Lorne. But I cannot remember him in any one sketch that was memorable in any way. That’s not just Brooks’ fault though – it is Lorne’s ongoing problem of having too many people in the cast. The 2013-2014 on-air cast was 17 people – that’s a bad strategy if you are trying to get air time, especially for the newcomers.
Lorne needs to continue paring the cast down. There is no magic number, but he did seem to make it work with the original cast of 7. Maybe he’ll end up with somewhere between 8 and 12 total after the smoke clears this summer.
BUT…….
What really has to improve is the writing, which was, at best, barely average in 2013-2014 – and often it was much worse. Having more writer/performers would help, as much of the 2013-2014 cast seemed to be just reading cue cards.
An upcoming midterm election in Fall 2014 will give SNL some ammo, and potentially some early Presidential contenders announcing in early 2015 may help as well. But Lorne needs to get this show back on track or its 40th year may be its swan song.
Unfortunately, this guy wasn’t cut out for sketch and it was painfully obvious since the beginning. Lorne Michaels has an affinity for good-looking White guys with some star potential, so much that he’ll overlook a lack of relevant experience to give them a shot. This reminds me of Jay Mohr’s stint on SNL. Kyle Mooney and John Milhiser are next to go if they don’t come up with some memorable characters. Also Sasheer Zamata seems like a “diversity hire” in the sense that whether it’s in her mind or everyone else’s she comes off as not belonging there. She needs to step up and prove how she’s funny; no one’s writing anything good for her.
Who is he again?
The cast is not very good. I think the person who should host the season Premiere should be Tracy Morgan
Haven’t seen a show worth watching in three years… the show is basically a flat and humorless exercise in trying to create something out of nothing; awful writing, flailing talent and musical acts that are over-hyped and unbearable. It just does not work anymore.