What Devon Walker did on his way out of Studio 8H was not bridge burning. But it was honest.
Walker left Saturday Night Live after three seasons as a cast member prior to Season 51. He announced his decision to his fans the way many modern celebs do: via social media. And the comic didn’t hide from the truth.
“Me and baby broke up… me and the show did three years together, and sometimes it was really cool,” Walker wrote on his Instagram account in late August of 2025. “Sometimes it was toxic as hell. But we did what we made the most of what it was, even amidst all of the dysfunction. We made a f‑‑‑ed up lil family.”
Walker’s declaration made headlines because of what it didn’t have in it: praise for SNL creator Lorne Michaels, NBC, or the show. Instead, Walker made it clear that the longtime late night variety show was a difficult place to work.
“There is a measure of humanity that the show could benefit from,” Walker said in an interview with Variety where he attempted to elaborate on his exiting words from SNL. “What ends up happening over the summer is oftentimes people are left hanging with big life decisions — people trying to start families or buy homes — and there’s no word from the show about whether they have their job. The show won’t tell them all summer and then will ultimately end up firing them when there’s been months of them trying to work their situation out.”
Joining Walker out the door before Season 51 was Ego Nwodim, who ended her acclaimed seven-year run as an SNL cast member. Nwodim’s decision to not return followed on the heels of Heidi Gardner being axed from the cast after eight seasons. Though Nwodim has never publicly criticized SNL, her departure felt like a solidarity move for her longtime co-worker pal Gardner. It also meant that SNL was losing two black cast members at basically the same time.
Walker’s critique of SNL is not unusual: a handful of cast members have shared criticism of the show over the years. But Walker’s was the most vocal in this era of social media where we often learn every sordid detail going on behind the scenes.
It’s part of the fabric of the show that Michaels and NBC do not communicate cast decisions in a forthcoming way. Many cast members have told the stories of not being sure if they were actually hired, or welcomed back. Michaels is notoriously non-confrontational, preferring to drag his feet when he has to make a tough decision, or delegate it to an assistant. Adam Sandler, one of the most beloved cast members in history, didn’t know why he was fired from the show for years.
SNL is what it is, as Walker hinted at in his “exit interview” comments. For better and worse, the show reflects many of the personality traits of its co-creator, Michaels. A notorious late-riser, Michaels constructs the production schedule around his mid-afternoon wakeup routine, preferring the writing staff and cast to work late into the evenings and early morning. Michaels hates idle chatter and is a very private person, so he rarely makes himself available to the cast and crew, preferring his lieutenants handle most things. Michaels is a control freak: so SNL is run like a comedy boot camp with rigid traditions and routines. Individualistic styles are not welcome. It’s conform or stand in the wings, far from the lights and camera.
Cast members who didn’t fit into the Michaels-designed SNL machine are usually jettisoned rather quickly. Talented cast members who were flushed out because they didn’t fit into the culture include Damon Wayans Sr., Ben Stiller, Janeane Garofalo, Chris Elliott, Mike O’Brien, Tim Robinson, Jenny Slate, and recently Chloe Troast.
There may be many reasons why some of those cast members left SNL, but in every case they worked in a system that, as Walker points out, “could benefit from [some humanity].”
Why can’t SNL treat its cast members with more respect? Michaels might shoot back that the show makes almost everyone on it famous and wealthy.
Why can’t SNL hire and keep more black performers? Michaels has always been pretty silent on that issue. But the show’s shoddy history of employing people of color is well-known. Even the wildly successful and popular Chris Rock was fired from the show following years trying to make SNL more relevant to black viewers. In the 1990s, a sketch comedy show existed essentially because it was the black answer to SNL: In Living Color.
When Michaels inevitably steps aside, Saturday Night Live will change dramatically. Only through the force of Micheals’ personality and his power in the entertainment business has he managed to keep SNL operating the way it does. The production costs are astronomically higher than they need to be. The scheduling and casting are tied to a system that is antiquated and dysfunctional. There are too many sets built that are never used, too many costumes sewn that no one ever wears, and too many ideas discarded after money is spent on them. The program also needs to become younger, more diverse, and it needs to embrace the current form of media in ways it hasn’t yet.
An 80-something year old executive producer who still likes his meetings to start at 5 PM, and wants to have blocks of time carved out so he can have power lunches with the rich and famous is not the future of SNL. The show can be less costly, more entertaining, and more humane. Devon Walker’s frank criticisms as he left the show are a sign that the time is right to make changes sooner rather than later.
