The best SNL cast had Killam, Kenan, Moynihan, Sudeikis, Hader, and Armisen. With them you can do anything, literally anything, and make it funny. You could take 2/3rds of that core and it’d still be the best, top-to-bottom, cast SNL has had.

Killam being pushed out the door makes no sense to me. He was the spiritual successor to guys like Phil Hartman, Sudeikis, and Hader. He could be low-key or completely crazy, and he had a bag full of impressions too.

Pharoah, as far as I could tell, while being an extremely talented mimic, isn’t really funny, at all. I can’t speak for how anybody contributes in the writers’ room, but as a performer I don’t think he’s a stand-out.

I love the weird stuff Mooney (and Bennett) do, and I’m sure with Kenan, Moynihan, and Cecily Strong and the fine but overrated McKinnon you can still make a good show, but it’s lame that some of the better, more tenured performers are being forced out. No curtain-call episode/moment for them, I guess.