'Saturday Night Live' Comings & Goings

With Will Forte’s recent announcement that he will be leaving Saturday Night Live after 8 seasons and reports that NBC’s late-night sketch show may be adding as many as 4 new cast members, the question is who else might be exiting when SNL returns for a 36th season later this month.

I hear Abby Elliott, daughter of Chris Elliott and the first second-generation SNL cast member, was in serious jeopardy but now appears safe to come back, while rumor is that Jenny Slate might not be returning. Slate, who joined as a featured player along with Nasim Pedrad last fall made headlines with her SNL debut. On the show’s season premiere last September, in her first appearance during a sketch titled Biker Chick Chat Slate uttered the word “fuckin'” on live television.

As for the new players joining SNL, rumored new additions include MadTV alum Taran Killam, Chicago-based Paul Brittain and Venessa Bayer as well as impressionist Jay Pharoah. The last time a quartet of new featured players joined the show, that group gave us Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers.