The new season of “Saturday Night Live” will have a significant change in its cast and its most
prominent segment, “Weekend Update.” Michael Che, a comic perhaps best known for his role
as a correspondent on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” will replace Cecily Strong, who will
remain on “S.N.L.” as a regular cast member. After trying out what he said were “a number of
different combinations” in the last few weeks, Lorne Michaels, the show’s creator and executive
producer, said he had selected Mr. Che, 31, who worked on the show last season as a writer,
to be the partner of Colin Jost, who began co-anchoring “Weekend Update” in the middle of last
season.
Mr. Michaels said that Mr. Che, who has had a career as a stand-up comedian in New York,
formed a close relationship last year in the writers’ room with Mr. Jost, one of the show’s two
head writers. Cecily Strong one of the show’s best players will get the opportunity to appear
more frequently in sketches this season, a move Ms. Strong herself had asked for.
Mr. Che appeared as recently as Aug. 26 on “The Daily Show” when he starred in a much-talked
-about segment with Jon Stewart about trying to find a safe location from which to report on the
shooting of a black teenager. Mr. Michaels said that he would probably be making one or two
more additions to the cast this season but that he had not yet reached a decision.
Source: NY Times