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Brooks Wheelan says he's leaving 'Saturday Night Live'

Brooks Wheelan, an 'SNL' cast member who joined the show in 2013, says he will not be appearing on the show during its upcoming season. 'FIRED FROM NEW YORK IT'S SATURDAY NIGHT!' Brooks Wheelan tweeted.

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Mark Lennihan/AP
Brooks Wheelan, a cast member of NBC's 'Saturday Night Live,' says he will not be returning to the show for its upcoming season.
  • By Molly Driscoll Staff Writer

“Saturday Night Live” cast member Brooks Wheelan says he will not be returning to the show next season. 

Wheelan tweeted on July 14 that he had been fired from the show.

“Had a blast and loved every second of it,” he wrote. “I'm totally honored to be able to make this next joke... FIRED FROM NEW YORK IT'S SATURDAY NIGHT!” 

NBC told the Los Angeles Times that the network doesn’t speak about casting shakeups.

Wheelan joined the show in the fall of 2013 with five other cast members, Kyle Mooney, Noel Wells, Mike O’Brien, Beck Bennett, and John Milhiser. Cast member Sasheer Zamata was added during the season. According to the Hollywood Reporter, which cast members will be coming back to “SNL” for the upcoming fall season has not yet been decided. 

According to the New York Daily News, cast member Nasim Pedrad, who has been on the show since 2009, said she may not be coming back to “SNL” this fall, since she’s been cast on the Fox sitcom “Mulaney,” which stars former “SNL” writer John Mulaney. If the show was picked up by Fox, that would probably be what she would focus on, said the New York Daily News. 

“I haven't heard any official word so far, but I love this show so much," Pedrad said, according to the New York Daily News. "I have an apartment in L.A. and, as far as I know, I'm in L.A. now.”

Many longtime “SNL” mainstays departed the show over the past couple of seasons, with Kristen Wiig and Andy Samberg departing in 2012 and Jason Sudeikis and Fred Armisen leaving in 2013, among others. Head writer Seth Meyers left to host the NBC show “Late Night,” which he began hosting in February.

"SNL" debuted in 1975 with such cast members as Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Gilda Radner, and Dan Aykroyd.

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