Cecily Strong To Co-Anchor ‘SNL’s Weekend Update, Brooks Wheelan Joins Cast

Saturday Night Live has set a succession plan for Weekend Update in light of anchor/SNL head writer Seth Meyers‘ pending departure to become the new host of Late Night. This fall, he will be joined at the Weekend Update desk by Cecily Strong, NBC confirmed. Strong, who joined SNL as a featured player last year, has had a semi-regular presence on Weekend Update as the Girl You Wished You Hadn’t Started a Conversation With at a Party. “Cecily, from the first show, was right there,” SNL honcho Lorne Michaels said in an interview with the NYT announcing Strong’s promotion that starts with the season opener September 28 with former Weekend Update co-anchor, Tina Fey, as host. “She exploded.” Is Strong in line to take over Weekend Update duties solo after Meyers departs to launch his late-night show in late fall? That is a possibility, but there is also a scenario where Meyers could stay on the anchor desk even after he moves over. “Seth is a unique case,” Michaels said, noting that the late-night show would not have a Friday edition, which would leave Meyers’ schedule open to continue pulling Saturday shifts. Meyers had been the solo anchor of Weekend Update since the 2008 departure of Amy Poehler who previously had co-anchored the news segment with Fey. Additionally, Michaels just settled on a sixth new cast member, young stand-up comedian Brooks Wheelan, who will join the other five new cast additions that we scooped last month: Kyle Mooney, Beck Bennett, John Milhiser, Noël Wells and SNL writer Michael Patrick O’Brien. Additionally, Michaels told NYT that Tim Robinson, a featured player last season, will move to the writing staff.

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