'Saturday Night Live' cast decisions: Who should stay, who should go

Michael Che: This year, Che became SNL’s first black co-head writer. It only took 43 years! He had a solid year on Weekend Update, but he’s also a great sketch writer, coming through with last season’s standout “Black Jeopardy” sketch with Tom Hanks. He also went undercover as a liberal white woman named Gretchen and had a surprisingly sweet reunion with his “stepmom,” played by Melissa McCarthy. Che stays, even if Colin Jost gets demoted again.

Colin Jost: Jost continued to co-anchor Weekend Update with Che and was also elevated to co-head writer. Not to cast aspersions on how he was, but Jost seems decidedly less smarmy than he was a few years ago. He’s also gotten better at laughing at himself, particularly in this tour de force Pete Davidson rant about their shared hometown of Staten Island. Alert the Staten Island Advance, Jost is coming back next year.

Pete Davidson: Davidson is still the youngest cast member on SNL and one of the youngest in history. Maybe that’s why he’s open about his personal life in Weekend Update appearances, which is a rarity among cast members. Last year he talked about going to rehab, and this year he discussed his mental health issues (Davidson was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, which he thinks would be helped if he were in more sketches). And while he freely admits he can’t act, sing, dance or do impressions, somehow Davidson is magic on screen, even when he’s basically doing nothing as irresistible bachelor, “Chad.” He’ll be back.

Cecily Strong: Strong finished her sixth year on the show and achieved a career milestone by doing a voice on "The Simpsons." She’s always in a ton of sketches, she plays the First Lady and she holds her own with legends like Will Ferrell. Everyone on SNL signs a long contract, so aside from budget cuts, the show should have another year of Cecily.

Beck Bennett & Kyle Mooney: These guys came into SNL as a team and still make deeply strange digital shorts together. They’re like the non-musical Lonely Island. Although they’re the same age, Bennett is the default choice for “grown-up” roles in sketches — bosses, fathers, United States vice presidents — while Mooney plays teenagers and man-children like Bruce Chandling. Every sketch needs a boss, and the show needs digital shorts, so these guys should be secure, unless someone green-lights a "Brigsby Bear" sequel.

Leslie Jones: 2018 was an Olympic year, so obviously Jones was having the time of her life. She’s a force of nature in general, telling off Batman and competing on "Black Jeopardy." Jones is a perfect example of why shows like SNL need diversity. Who would have guessed that a six-foot black woman in her 50s would be such an invaluable performer — but that’s why you have to look beyond the Groundlings to find great performers.

Melissa Villasenor: Villasenor is an uncanny impressionist, but the show rarely finds ways to feature that skill. Maybe it’s because she doesn’t necessarily look like the people she’s portraying, but that shouldn’t be an impediment for a show that had Dan Aykroyd playing Jimmy Carter with a mustache. It could be that the show sees Villasenor as Latinx first and hesitates when it comes to cross-racial impressions. Her status on the show is probably tenuous, but it feels like pairing her with the right writers would make Villasenor a valuable asset.

Chris Redd: Redd showed up on SNL and felt like he’d been in the cast for years already. Maybe that’s due in part to working with The Lonely Island guys in "Popstar: Never Stop Stopping," where he stole scenes as rapper Hunter the Hungry. Adding him felt like a pennant contender adding an all-star starter in free agency, as Redd was the breakout star of the season — but not a porn star.

Mikey Day & Alex Moffat: They play the Trump Brothers, they’re in almost every sketch and they’re easily confused with one another. Day has been a great writer for the show even before he joined the cast, so he seems pretty secure, and so does Moffat as long as Eric Trump stays out of prison. It’s just… there’s a lot of white guys in the cast.

Aidy Bryant: Bryant won the Jimmy Fallon Trophy this year as the cast member who breaks most frequently, but she shines most as the ferocious Aidy B, devoted Cardi B. fan. You’d think Bryant was secure, but sometimes weird things happen after the sixth year of an SNL contract. Just ask Taran Killam.

Heidi Gardner: Gardner got a lot of traction with her work on Weekend Update as a teenage YouTube film critic and "Angel, Every Boxer's Girlfriend from Every Movie About Boxing Ever." She also took over celebrity impressions like Drew Barrymore (a bad omen for Villasenor). Gardner will probably hang around, but you really never know with a featured player after her first year.

Luke Null: It’s tough being a featured player in such a big cast. There’s no guarantee any of your stuff gets on, and if no impression or recurring character hits, a newcomer can end up invisible. That was the case for Luke Null this year. One of his first showcases was the deeply uncomfortable "Late For Class," which began with two minutes of dead silence from the audience. He’s a talented performer and singer, but the show rarely showcases it. And while his sketch about a man getting his horns removed was solid, there just wasn’t much of a body of work this season. He’s destined to join Damon Wayans, Janeane Garofalo and Gilbert Gottfried as one-and-done cast members. (Other one-and-doners include Joan Cusack and Robert Downey Jr., so it's not terrible company to keep.)

Overall: We’d expect a relatively stable offseason for the show, depending on whatever career opportunities emerge for the cast outside of 30 Rock. It would be nice to see an even more diverse cast — Asian-Americans do sketch comedy, and so do openly gay men — but this year was a big step toward a cast that reflected America in 2018, and it enabled more relevant sketches. And maybe they’ll even let a regular cast member play the president next year!