‘SNL’ Fires Another Cast Member in ‘Gut Punch’ Move

Emil Wakim will not be returning to Saturday Night Live after one season in a featured player role.

“I won’t be returning to SNL next year,” the comedian announced on Instagram Wednesday. “It was a gut punch of a call to get, but I’m so grateful for my time there.”

Wakim, who often appeared during the Weekend Update segment of the NBC late-night show, wrote that “every time I scanned into the building I would think how insane it is to get to work there.” Wakim went on to call his tenure at SNL “the most terrifying, thrilling, and rewarding experience of my life” that he will miss “dearly” alongside “all the brilliant people that work there that made it feel like a home.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Emil Wakim (@emilwakim)

“Thank u to [Lorne Michaels] for taking a chance on me and changing my life,” he continued. “I was so lucky to bring some of myself in there and say things I believed in and I’m excited for whatever chapter comes next.”

Wakim concluded, “Here’s to making more art without compromise. Onwards and upwards.”

Wakim’s exit comes after that of cast member Devon Walker, who announced Monday that he would be leaving the show after three seasons. Both exits come ahead of Season 51 of SNL during the time period in which the cast is confirmed each year.

Walker wrote on Instagram of his exit, “To me, jobs in this industry feel like a bunch of little marriages. Some of em last for a long time if we’re lucky, but most of them are fleeting. Permanent until they’re not. That’s the deal. You know what it is it (sic) when you sign up.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Devon Walker (@internetdevon)

“Me and the show did three years together, and sometimes it was really cool. Sometimes it was toxic as hell,” he continued. “But we did what we made the most of what it was, even amidst all of the dysfunction. We made a f—ked up lil family.”

“More than anything, I’m just really happy I got to do it with Gary and Alex. N—s really went from running a bar show to working together at 30 rock!” Walker added, before saying that when he returns from a trip to Japan, he’s “tryna be in a prestige drama. Ideally something with Julianne Moore.”

Walker later jumped back on his Instagram Story to clarify, “just to be clear, this is good news !! It was just time for me to do something different. please don’t be hitting me with the ‘im so sorry’ we not on that at ALL. sometimes mom and dad don’t see things eye to eye.”