On Aug. 28, I got a notification from Pop Crave on X. I glanced at it, spotting the keywords “Michael Longfellow,” and immediately opened the post.

Surely, I thought, this is the day that kicks off all the announcements of shifting cast positions for “Saturday Night Live” — featured players join the main cast, tenured cast members leave and new people become featured players before the next season begins. This cycle of casting and recasting is as natural as photosynthesis and oxidation.

Not only was I excited to see how things played out with new cast members, but I was also sure that Longfellow’s name being in the post meant one thing: He was finally being promoted to the main cast as an anchor of “Weekend Update,” the show’s satirical news segment. Shake-ups like this are why the show is still relevant and stays on air, after all.

“Devon Walker, Emil Wakim & Michael Longfellow are all leaving SNL,” the post read. Tragedy had struck. Lo and behold, Season 51 will be yet another season of mostly the same major players, minus one of the cast members with the highest potential to take on a crucial mantle of the show’s tradition. 

There were more casualties that I wasn’t very happy about: Devon Walker and Emil Watkin were underutilized; the Please Don’t Destroy trio was desperately needed and dominated the digital shorts sphere; and Heidi Gardner has been a blessing to SNL since she joined as a featured player in 2017.

But I would easily say goodbye to all of them if it meant Michael Longfellow could take on “Weekend Update” as a full-time anchor. In fact, there are quite a few people that I’d rather say goodbye to than Michael Longfellow, Chloe Fineman and Sarah Sherman included. Despite being a fan myself, even Jane Wickline has had extremely limited screen time and little impact. 

Beyond my opinions about the capabilities of the current cast members, firing Longfellow is a terrible decision from a logistical standpoint. It was clear from the very first time he appeared on “Weekend Update” that Longfellow was being groomed to someday be an anchor. His performance style as a stand-up comedian is monotone and informational with phenomenal timing, signaling him as co-anchor Colin Jost’s protégé and apparent heir.

Besides Wickline and perhaps Ashley Padilla, no other current cast members appear to have the skillset and comedy style necessary to co-host a non-sketch segment. Without Longfellow, SNL has completely lost three seasons’ worth of momentum for bringing in new blood to “Weekend Update.”

Jost and Michael Che have been co-anchors since 2014. That’s over 10 years of being prominently featured in every episode, and yet their main shtick is the “Joke Swap” they typically do once a season, where they write jokes that the other anchor must read as their own in full seriousness. A great bit, to be sure, but hard to make new for 10 seasons, and now, at least one more. 

They’ve earned their place in SNL’s history, but it’s time to bring in some new blood.

Letting Longfellow go means starting the “Weekend Update” succession from scratch, which is entirely unnecessary and will inevitably lead to nothing new happening on the only consistent segment in the show besides the opening monologue. They might have bought Jost and Che more time, but SNL hasn’t exactly bought them any more favor among nerds like me that live for the reinvention of the show with each season. 

There are certainly some new players in the upcoming season to be excited about, specifically Ben Marshall and Kam Patterson. 

Marshall is the only member from Please Don’t Destroy to return and has been promoted to the main cast — an unexpected choice considering he was a part of a trio — but still a win nevertheless. Patterson doesn’t have a lot of material out there, indicating that his audition was impressive enough to supplement his relative lack of representation online — and his stand up that is online is already incredible.

Other new players include two people largely known for their social media presence: Jeremy Culhane and Veronika Slowikowska. Culhane has a long resume of comedy work spanning satirical videos on social media and television, including being in one of my favorite shows of all time, “American Vandal,” so I have high hopes for him as a recurring guest on “Weekend Update.” 

Slowikowska’s work is largely limited to her TikTok with short sketches mostly based in awkward humor, so I am more uneasy about how she will translate to long-form sketch comedy.

If you somehow noticed that I didn’t mention the final new player, Tommy Brennan, it’s because he wasn’t someone I knew well before he joined the cast Monday. His ease behind the mic is compelling, and he has some history in digital shorts, so only time will tell.

So while Longfellow is out, there’s still new talent being brought in, continuing the beating heart of SNL’s life on air. That being said, I will not be fully satisfied as a viewer of SNL who treats the show like fantasy sports until I see Michael Longfellow’s soulful little eyes looking back at me from behind the “Weekend Update” desk.

Anna Jordan is a junior writing about pop culture controversies in her column, “Chronically Online,” which runs every other Thursday. She is also an arts and entertainment editor at the Daily Trojan.