Saturday Night Live is catching heat for axing eight-season veteran Heidi Gardner.
The significant shakeup SNL boss Lorne Michaels teased last week has been just that, and each day since Monday has revealed writers and cast members—both new and seasoned—who are ending their time on the show.
Though some exits have earned side-eyes from fans, complaints reached a crescendo on Thursday evening, when Gardner’s exit was announced.
The 42-year-old is widely considered one of the cast’s biggest stars—and the news of her exit, along with other SNL players, has fans suggesting the show should just pack it up ahead of Season 51.
One social media user wrote, “I think we should cancel SNL at this point, like what’s even the point since we’re getting rid of so much talent already.”
Another wrote, “If they’re going to continuously axe their refreshing and talented newcomers without clear reasoning as to why at this rate… either put someone else in the big chair or call it quits, like this is just painful to watch.”
“Just cancel the damn show at this point,” wrote one fan on Instagram, reacting to Gardner’s news. “If Kenan, Chloe, and Bowen go, just end it!”
The exit announcements began this week with some of the show’s writers, including five-year veteran Celeste Yim and three-year tenured writer Rosebud Baker.
On Tuesday, cast member Devon Walker, who has been on the show for three seasons, was the first of the on-air talent to reveal he wouldn’t be returning to the show, saying that he hadn’t seen “eye to eye” with the powers that be.
A day later, newcomer Emil Wakim was axed with a “gut punch” of a phone call, after just one season on the show.
The departures only got progressively more shocking when Michael Longfellow, a three-year cast member who’d reportedly screen tested to take over the “Weekend Update” desk, was revealed to have been let go.
By the time Gardner’s exit made the news late on Thursday, fans were saying enough is enough.
“She couldn’t get a goodbye? She’s been there almost a decade smh,” one fan wrote on Instagram.
Gardner previously expressed that she’d been feeling “a little bit is just sketch fatigue, or idea fatigue,” on the show in a conversation on Craig Ferguson’s Joy podcast in February.
“At this point, after doing Groundlings and SNL for so long, I’m like, ‘I’ve written a lot of sketches,’” she said, adding the feeling had been “a little tough.”
She hasn’t commented on her departure from the show—but whether or not she feels relieved not to be returning, some fans are seeing her exit as a sign the show is leaving its strengths behind.
Michaels told Puck last week that the big changes coming to the show were a result of a previous hold off to limit “distractions” from the anniversary season and the “pressure to reinvent.”
The only cast member Michaels confirmed would remain for Season 51 is Donald Trump impersonator James Austin Johnson.
But changes to the show’s core cast have still managed to surprise people, even past cast members.
Punkie Johnson, who left SNL in 2024, called Gardner’s exit “probably the biggest surprise of this ‘shake up,’” in a comment on Instagram.
“CONGRATULATIONS HEIDI… YOU ARE AN SNL LEGEND FOR LIFE,” she wrote.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine star Chelsea Peretti reacted to the show’s mass exodus on social media with the pretend headline, “Chelsea Peretti to exit SNL and wasn’t even a cast member.” She added in the caption, “This is crazy!”
