Another ‘SNL’ Exit Announced, and It Might Be the Biggest Surprise Yet

Saturday Night Live is throwing out another exit ahead of Season 51, and this may be the biggest surprise yet.

Please Don’t Destroy member and SNL writer John Higgins has exited to pursue other projects as an actor, Variety reports.

Higgins joined the variety sketch series’ writing staff in 2021 for Season 47 alongside Ben Marshall and Martin Herlihy. The trio met and began collaborating as students at NYU in 2017. As Please Don’t Destroy, they’ve created a number of videos for SNL over the last few years and have become fan favorites for their often self-deprecating digital shorts. They often play themselves, with the videos usually taking place on SNL writing nights, and have collaborated with A-list celebrity hosts and musical guests like Taylor Swift, Dakota Johnson, Scarlett Johansson, and Bad Bunny, among others.

While Higgins, whose father Steve Higgins has been a writer-producer on SNL since 1995 and is the announcer on The Tonight Show, is leaving, Marshall and Herlihy are staying at Studio 8H. Marshall has been promoted to featured player, and Herlihy is remaining as a writer.

Considering Please Don’t Destroy has been a fan-favorite in recent years, this news is surprising, especially since the trio is currently on tour together and will continue to do projects together outside of SNL. In 2023, they released the Peacock film Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain, with Judd Apatow as an executive producer.

Higgins is the latest writer to exit. He follows Celeste Yim and Rosebud Baker, who revealed last week they’d be leaving. Cast departures include Devon Walker, Emil Wakim, Michael Longfellow, and Heidi Gardner, with more expected. This comes after creator and producer Lorne Michaels warned of some shakeups following the 50^th anniversary season. It’s unknown how many more exits are on the way, but with Season 51 premiering in just over a month, the end of the exodus is bound to be near.

As previously mentioned, Marshall has been promoted to featured player. Joining him are SNL newcomers Veronika Slowikowska, Jeremy Culhane, Kam Patterson, and Tommy Brennan. Saturday Night Live is going through some big changes, and while it will be exciting to see Marshall on the show more, it is disappointing to know that Please Don’t Destroy likely won’t be getting another digital short on the series. At the very least, fans may still be able to expect much more from them, even if it’s not on SNL.