One-season Saturday Night Live cast member Emil Wakim has announced he won’t be returning to the show this fall. Wakim shared the news in a heartfelt Instagram post reflecting on his year at Studio 8H.
“I won’t be returning to SNL next year. It was a gut punch of a call to get but I’m so grateful for my time there,” Wakim wrote. He revealed he was at Six Flags celebrating a friend’s 36th birthday when he got the news, taking what he described as “a really emotional walk through Bugs Bunny Park” and staring out across “Daffy Duck Lake thinking about life.”
Wakim joined the cast in fall 2024 as a featured player, alongside fellow newcomers Ashley Padilla and Jane Wickline. He is the second cast member to announce their departure this week, following Devon Walker.
In his post, Wakim expressed deep gratitude for the opportunity: “Every time I scanned into the building I would think how insane it is to get to work there. It was the most terrifying, thrilling, and rewarding experience of my life and I will miss it dearly and all the brilliant people that work there that made it feel like a home. Thank u to Lorne for taking a chance on me and changing my life.”
The comic also emphasized how meaningful it was to bring his perspective to the show, saying he was “so lucky to bring some of myself in there and say things I believed in,” while looking forward to “making more art without compromise.”
Wakim closed with a note of optimism: “Onwards and upwards. Love u. Emil.”
According to LateNighter’s screen time tallies for Season 50, Wakim logged more screen time than both Walker and fellow featured player Wickline.
He can take consolation in the post-show success seen by many of the show’s past “one and done” cast members, a list that includes the likes of Robert Downey Jr, Sarah Silverman, and Tim Robinson.
The show has yet to announce its cast lineup for its 51st season, which kicks off Saturday, October 4.
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I’m outraged.
If you do decently and show some potential, you should get a second season than Lorne should decide.
In 2020, 2021, 2023, and now 2024, he cut one cast member after the first season which sends the message that all the newbies are competing with each other for slots. Only in 2016 and 2022 did he keep everyone past the first season.
This means they’re not going to feel particularly cooperative with each other and will make the workplace even more toxic.
He should be making more cuts from the elder statesmen who have been there too long, not from the newbs. This is just plain cruel.
fair take, although I think both new and old are going this time
Lorne Michaels needs to step down, NOW! Either on his own, or get kicked out! It’s clear he’s past his prime, and has been that way for many years now! Get someone new to breathe life into that tired franchise, or just pull the plug on it already!
A Jewish executive producer gets rid of the only Arab cast member.
Feels so wrong…feels like genocide.
And there it is, peoples! The Projector projects his anti Semitism onto others again, like he projects his racism onto others! Now we’ll expect that ignorant filth to respond with one of his stupid, cookiecutter responses, non stop, because it’s a sad loser shunned by society!