Saturday Night Live welcomed back cast members, hosts and musical guests for the star-studded SNL 50 special on Sunday, February 16, but there were some notable absences.
The live, three-hour NBC special featured casts and hosts mingling in new versions of iconic sketches — who will ever forget Domingo’s (Marcello Hernandez) family reunion with his brothers Renaldo (Pedro Pascal) and Santiago (Bad Bunny), or Will Ferrell causing Eddie Murphy to break character in “Scared Straight?” Unlike with previous SNL anniversary specials, producer Lorne Michaels put less emphasis on clip montages to bring viewers live sketches featuring a huge range of celebrity guests. Unfortunately, there were still some exceptions as legendary SNL stars either didn’t perform or weren’t in Studio 8H at all for the momentous evening in New York City.
Keep scrolling to find out which major cast members chose to skip SNL 50:
Dan Aykroyd
SNL‘s classic pitchman was the only living original cast member not in attendance for SNL 50, as his costars Chevy Chase, Garrett Morris, Jane Curtin and Laraine Newman were all present. Curtin and Newman even held up a photo of their late cast mate Gilda Radner in a touching moment at the end of the special.
While Aykroyd’s manager confirmed to Puck News earlier in February that the comedian “[wouldn’t] be there” for SNL 50, he did do interviews promoting the special, including appearing on NPR’s Fresh Air to reflect on the creation of the Blues Brothers.
Live from New York … it’s 50 years of celebrity outbursts and musical meltdowns on Saturday Night Live. The hugely influential NBC sketch comedy show is celebrating its 50th anniversary on Sunday, February 16, with a live three-hour NBC special featuring cast reunions and highlights of SNL’s greatest moments. Just keep in mind that it […]
Aykroyd also paid tribute to the show on his social feeds in multiple posts, including writing via X on Friday, February 14: “Cracking a Head with pride at having been a co-founder of SNL along with everyone we were together with in those four years, five decades ago. This telecast is as historical as the next moon landing. Comedy stars of our age all gathered under the aegis of America’s greatest living impresario, my boss Lorne Michaels. People it’s friggin’ Holy!!”
Bill Hader
Like with Aykroyd, Puck News reported that Hader gave Saturday Night Live “a polite decline” when he was approached to appear live at SNL 50.
Hader still took part in the promotion of the 50th anniversary, reuniting with former costars Kristen Wiig and Fred Armisen as their characters from “The Californians” for a Volkswagen commercial.
The three-time Emmy Award winner additionally gave an interview for the documentary Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music, where he looked back on SNL‘s contentious relationship with seven-time musical guest Kanye West (who was also absent on Sunday).
The Saturday Night cast has Us shook by their resemblance to their real-life Saturday Night Live counterparts. The film, which was originally titled SNL 1975, will focus on the behind-the-scenes story of the night leading up to SNL‘s first broadcast in October 1975. The movie’s director Jason Reitman wrote the screenplay with Gil Kenan, which was […]
“[Kanye] was always kinda like, nice, but then also really contentious, you know?” Hader revealed in the documentary. “He had no problem telling us that he found the show incredibly unfunny. He would tell us that on the regular.”
Dana Carvey
One of the more unexpected omissions was Carvey, especially since he’d made semi-regular guest appearances throughout season 50 to impersonate Joe Biden and Elon Musk.
Carvey frequently spoke about his excitement for SNL 50 on his podcast “Fly on the Wall,” which he cohosts with David Spade. Spade appeared prominently in the NBC special as part of a Broadway musical parody, alongside Pete Davidson, John Mulaney and more than a dozen other SNL cast members and hosts.
Carvey recorded a new edition of “Fly on the Wall” to discuss Super Bowl LIX earlier this month, but has thus far not explained his absence from SNL 50.
Colin Quinn
The former “Weekend Update” anchor was a prominent part of both Saturday Night Live‘s 25th anniversary special in 1999 and the 40th anniversary special in 2015. In both of those episodes, Quinn was involved in segments celebrating the history of “Update.”
Quinn’s exclusion this time is perhaps not surprising since SNL largely eschewed tributes. Current coanchors Colin Jost and Michael Che were briefly joined by predecessor Seth Meyers and multiple classic correspondents, including Bill Murray presenting a tongue-in-cheek ranking of the best “Update” anchors (where Quinn came in 10th place and was called “one of the all-time greats”).
The comedian’s website listed him as performing at Goodnights Comedy Club in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Sunday, so it’s possible this prior engagement kept him from appearing at SNL 50.
Robert Downey Jr.
If there was ever a time for this season 11 cast member to make a triumphant return to Studio 8H, Sunday’s special was seemingly perfect following his recent Oscar win. Alas, Downey was not in attendance. The actor was part of a controversial season where producer Michaels scrapped most of the cast (including Downey) to rebuild the show in 1986.
Archival interviews with the Marvel star were included in the Beyond Saturday Night docuseries, where he explained that friend Anthony Michael Hall helped him to get hired by Michaels in 1985.
“I learned so much in that year about what I wasn’t,” he said in Beyond Saturday Night. “But there’s not a more exciting 90 minutes you could have, whether you are any good or not.”
Downey is soon returning to the MCU to play Doctor Doom, so there’s still a chance for him to host a season 51 episode when Avengers: Doomsday releases in 2026.
Joan Cusack
Another season 11 cast member, Cusack has only rarely discussed her one season at Saturday Night Live, thus it’s probably not too surprising that she skipped SNL 50.
In a March 2000 interview with NPR, Cusack admitted that she expected to be fired by Michaels because her time on the show “wasn’t working.”
“It wasn’t working for me, too. I was miserable,” she recalled. “I think I wound up in the hospital, actually. I had, like, some surgery, and it’s, like, horrible.”
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Cusack went on to have an incredible career in Hollywood after being dropped from SNL in 1986, including receiving two Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress for Working Girl and In & Out. She won an Emmy Award in 2015 for her guest appearance in Shameless.
Others notably absent during Sunday’s special were Chris Redd (seasons 43-47), Randy Quaid (season 11) and Mary Gross (seasons 7-10).
Saturday Night Live returns on NBC and Peacock March 1 with an all-new season 50 episode at 11:30 p.m. ET.
