Alex Moffat and Melissa Villaseñor Out at SNL Ahead of Season 48

According to sources close to the show, Saturday Night Live cast members Alex Moffat and Melissa Villaseñor will not be a part of the show's 48th season. They join previously announced departures Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, Pete Davidson, and Kyle Mooney.

Also reportedly leaving is Aristotle Athari, who joined the show as a featured player last year.

Both Moffett and Villaseñor have been with the show since 2016, and are known for their celebrity impressions. Among the celebrities Villaseñor portrayed over her five seasons on the show are Björk, Owen Wilson, Miley Cyrus, Gwen Stefani, Jennifer Lopez, Kate McKinnon, and Kristen Wiig. Moffett has memorably played Eric Trump and Tucker Carlson. He also originated the recurring character "The Guy Who Just Bought a Boat." 

The cast list of NBC's Saturday Night Live has been uncharacteristically stable over the last several years, but Season 48 is shaping up to be a major turnover year for the series, with six regular cast members not returning.

The last time the show has seen a number of departures anywhere near this was in the same year was 2006, when Tina Fey, Rachel Dratch, Horatio Sanz, Chris Parnell, and Finesse Mitchell all departed the show (although in some respects, that year may have been even more of a shock to the system since at the time there were only 12 reperatory cast members, while last season saw 16).

It remains to be seen who among the returning featured players will be upped to the main cast this season, and/or whether any new cast members will join the show. Those announcements are typically made within a week or two of the show's season premiere, which is scheduled for October 1.

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Jed Rosenzweig is the Founder and Publisher of Primetimer.