Lorne Michaels says to expect 'SNL' cast changes next season

NEW YORK, June 14 (UPI) -- Saturday Night Live Executive Producer Lorne Michaels says there will be cast changes ahead of next next season of the comedy sketch show.

Michaels told Deadline the loss of five leading men in SNL over the last year has prompted some rebuilding of the cast, something that's still ongoing.

"There will be changes this year," he said.

"We lost four leading men at the end of last season, Fred [Armisen] and Bill [Hader] and Andy [Samberg] and Jason [Sudeikis], all of whom were very seasoned, very strong cast. We lost Kristin [Wiig] the year before," Lorne said. "All have been here a long time, and you get used to how good people are. Losing the fifth leading man in Seth [Meyers] (in early February) was a hard thing, in the middle of a season, because there's only one other time in the 39 years that we ever changed Update in the middle of a season, and that was Norm Macdonald to Colin Quinn. And that was more because a whole other set of reasons, but I think that that made it a much harder thing, in addition to having to focus on launching Jimmy and launching Seth. But SNL, we put a lot of pressure, a lot of new people. It was a hard season."