Martin Herlihy is leaving Saturday Night Live after five seasons as a writer and performer, the latest in a string of departures that has hollowed out the show's roster heading into its 52nd season.
The Daily Mail reported on August 31 that the 27-year-old Herlihy, best known as one-third of the comedy trio Please Don't Destroy, is done at the NBC sketch show. The report cited The Hollywood Reporter as the original source of the news. NBC has not publicly confirmed the departure; the Daily Mail noted it had contacted the network for comment.
No reason was given for Herlihy's exit. Whether he resigned, saw his contract lapse, or was let go remains unclear. What is clear is the pattern: SNL keeps losing faces, and the bench keeps getting thinner.
Herlihy joined SNL primarily as a writer but appeared on camera regularly as a performer alongside his Please Don't Destroy partners, Ben Marshall and John Higgins. The trio built a following with their recurring digital shorts on the show.
That trio no longer exists at SNL. Higgins left the show last year during what they described as a large cast shakeup. Marshall was promoted to full-time cast member around the same time. Now Herlihy is gone too, leaving Marshall as the sole remaining member of the group on the show's payroll.
Herlihy's SNL connection runs deeper than most. His father, Tim Herlihy, was one of the show's head writers in the mid-1990s, a detail that made Martin's five-season run something of a family legacy at the long-running program.
The entertainment industry has seen a wave of unexpected departures in recent months, from SNL's own revolving door to losses across television and film.
Herlihy's departure adds to a list that would make any showrunner nervous. After SNL's landmark 50th season, four cast members left: Heidi Gardner, Devon Walker, Emil Wakim, and Michael Longfellow. That was a significant chunk of the ensemble in one sweep.
Then came Bowen Yang, who quit last December to pursue a Broadway debut and focus on his podcast, Las Culturistas. Yang's exit caught observers off guard.
In July, Chloe Fineman departed after seven seasons. Fineman had joined the show in 2019 for the 45th season and earned a promotion to full-time cast member in 2021. The television world has also grappled with broader conversations about performer welfare, as seen when Melissa Gilbert called for stronger protections for child actors earlier this year.
Fineman's parting statement at the time struck a gracious tone. She called the job "the greatest privilege of my life" and said she was "forever in debt" to SNL creator Lorne Michaels.
"It's really hard to leave SNL but it does feel like the right time. I'm going to miss it a lot. But the people who work there are my family and that place is my home, and I know I'll never be too far away."
Fineman also praised her colleagues, saying she was "constantly amazed watching them work." Herlihy, by contrast, has offered no public statement, at least none that has surfaced so far.
SNL presses ahead regardless. The Season 52 premiere is set for September 26, with New York Knicks star Jalen Brunson hosting and global girl group KATSEYE performing as musical guest. Actress Dakota Johnson will host the October 3 episode, NBC announced. Shane Gillis and Inde Navarrette are also slated to host upcoming episodes, with Rosalia and Gracie Abrams lined up as musical guests.
A stacked hosting lineup can generate buzz. But hosts come and go each week. The cast is the backbone, and SNL's backbone has lost vertebrae at a striking rate. The broader entertainment world has faced its own turbulence, award season brought unexpected tributes this year, and the industry continues to reckon with how quickly its familiar faces can vanish from the stage.
Several open questions hang over the show. Will Herlihy continue working with Please Don't Destroy outside of SNL? What is Ben Marshall's status heading into the new season? And how does a show already thinned by eight-plus departures rebuild its chemistry before the cameras roll in late September?
The sketch comedy world has also absorbed losses beyond SNL. The death of former Nickelodeon star Christy Knowings reminded fans how small and interconnected the community of TV comedy performers really is.
What stands out about the SNL exodus is not just its scale but its opacity. Fineman offered a warm farewell. Yang had a Broadway gig to point to. But for Herlihy, Gardner, Walker, Wakim, Longfellow, and Higgins, the public record is thin. People leave, the show moves on, and viewers are left to guess.
That lack of transparency is a choice. NBC controls the messaging. Lorne Michaels, who has run the show since its 1975 debut, has never been known for public hand-wringing over personnel. But when the departures pile up this fast, silence starts to look less like discretion and more like an institution that would rather not explain what is happening inside its own walls.
Audiences deserve better than a revolving door with no exit interviews. If SNL wants viewers to invest in its next generation, it might start by being honest about why the last one keeps walking out.
