The “year of change” at Saturday Night Live continues.
Deadline understands that Alex Moffat, Melissa Villaseñor and Aristotle Athari are not returning for Season 48 of the venerable NBC sketch show.
Moffat and Villaseñor both joined as featured players in 2016, while Athari joined last season. Moffat and Villaseñor were promoted to the main cast in 2018.
Villaseñor was the show’s second Latina cast member after Noel Wells and the first to be promoted to repertory status.
The departures come after Deadline revealed in May that Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant and Kyle Mooney were exiting in addition to Pete Davidson.
It comes after creator Lorne Michaels admitted that he was expecting this year to be a “year of change” for the show.
It’s not a huge surprise given that this past season – the show’s 47th – featured its largest-ever cast with 21 stars and eight cast members who were entering their eighth season or beyond.
It also follows the departure of Lindsay Shookus, a producer and head of its talent department, who is leaving after 20 years.
