The cast of Saturday Night Live has included many actors and actresses. Since the show's fifth season, the cast has been divided into upper and lower groups, with cast members often promoted up.
The Not Ready for Prime Time Players[]
- Main article: The Not Ready for Prime Time Players
The original cast was called The Not Ready for Prime Time Players, a name intended to mock Howard Cosell's "Saturday Night Live", whose cast members were known as the "Prime Time Players". This designation was dropped for the show's fourth season.
Repertory Players[]
For the show's fifth season, the "Featured Players" cast tier was created (see below), and after the departures of the original cast at the end of that season, this two-tier structure would be maintained by new producer Jean Doumanian. The term Repertory Players came to be applied to the upper tier of cast members, to differentiate them from the Featured Players.
Often times, if featured players are good enough to remain on the show, they'll be promoted to Repertory Status. Harry Shearer was the first featured player to be promoted to Repertory Status. Shearer was hired to the show in Season 5 as a featured player, and was promoted within the second-half of the season. When Doumanian took over for SNL, Eddie Murphy was promoted to Repertory Status mid-way through season 6 (his first season).
After Doumanian was fired and Dick Ebersol took over, he mostly dropped the two-tier system (with the exception of season 7, when Brian Doyle-Murray, Weekend Update co-anchor -- then called SNL Newsbreak, was a featured player). Original executive producer Lorne Michaels brought the two-tier system back when he returned to SNL in season 11.
Occasionally, featured players will be bumped up to Repertory Status after their first season, such as with Kevin Nealon in season 13; Chris Farley, Chris Rock, and Julia Sweeney in season 17; and Norm Macdonald in season 20.
Sometimes, that's not always the case, Mike Myers was promoted to Repertory Status mid-way through season 15 on February 17, 1990, the third cast member to be promoted mid-way through an SNL season (like Shearer and Murphy; though unlike those two, Myers was hired the previous season as a mid-season hire).
Few large turnovers have taken place since season 21.The last cast members hired directly to repertory status were Ana Gasteyer and Tracy Morgan, both hired for season 22 (though Chris Parnell was fired after season 26 and rehired directly to repertory in the following season).
Starting with season 24 (the next time cast members were hired), all new cast members are hired as featured players (and the 3 new cast members hired were promoted to Repertory, the very next season in season 25). As of season 27, after two seasons as a featured player, a cast member will then be promoted to Repertory Status for their third season (which is what happened with Rachel Dratch that season).
Notable exceptions since then, in which cast members are bumped up to Repertory, after one season, those have mainly included Bill Hader, Andy Samberg, Jason Sudeikis, and Kristen Wiig being promoted in season 32; and Aidy Bryant and Cecily Strong in season 39, which was the last time a cast member was made rep after one season.
Featured Players[]
The Featured Players are the lower tier of cast members.
The separate grouping was created for season five. At the end of the previous season, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi had departed, and Michaels decided to also create a lower tier of cast members for bit parts. Previously, writers had played these parts uncredited, and indeed, most of the new credited featured players were long-time writers on the show. During the season, Harry Shearer was promoted to Repertory status; he was the first featured player ever promoted, and the only person to be promoted when original cast members remained on the show.
Some lists erroneously list Al Franken and Tom Davis as featured players in season 3 and season 4. While they were intermittently credited as special guests (as the duo "Franken & Davis") during that time, their performances were more on par with Michael O'Donoghue's standup performances during that time, not in the vein of future featured players.
When Doumanian took over the following year, she decided to keep this two-tier system. While the entire cast was new, she placed the actors into separate categories. Eddie Murphy became the second person promoted from featured status during that season. After Doumanian's firing, new producer Dick Ebersol made little use of the featured player category, with only one in season 7 (Brian Doyle-Murray, a featured player in season five and writer under Doumanian), and none in the following three seasons. When Lorne Michaels returned for season 11, he did as Doumanian had done in the sixth season and placed his new cast into two groups, thus cementing the system.
From Michaels return into the 1990s, featured players were only credited when they were scheduled to appear; in any given episode, only some of the featured players on the cast roster would appear in the opening montage. The Saturday Night Live Band with the current musical director (initially G.E. Smith, and later Lenny Pickett), would also be listed at the end of the Featured Players list during these seasons.
However, as of season 24, featured players are credited for every episode of a season, whether they appear or not. Additionally, as of season 26, featured players must stay on for two seasons, to be promoted to repertory status (season 26 was cast member Rachel Dratch's second season in the cast, before she was promoted to Rep for season 27).
Middle cast category[]
Seasons 16-18 used a system of dividing the cast into three groups. The new middle group didn't have an official name; announcer Don Pardo simply prefaced the first name with the word "with" and listed them alphabetically after the repertory cast, while variously using "with" or "starring" to introduce the repertory players. These cast members were shown in video clips and were credited in every episode, like the repertory cast but unlike the featured players, who were shown in still photos and credited only if they were scheduled to appear.
When the category was created, it was comprised two new cast members, Chris Farley and Chris Rock. Farley and Rock had been hired to replace the departing Jon Lovitz and Nora Dunn, who had departed the previous year; their departures were the first of repertory cast members since the big changeover between seasons 11 and 12. After season 18, all five members of the middle category were promoted to repertory status.
Timeline[]
| Repertory | Featured | Middle group | Other role |
Vertical gray lines indicate season start dates; horizontal black lines indicate Weekend Update anchor
Seasons 1-20[]
Seasons 21-40[]
Seasons 41-present[]
