Amy Poehler has left SNL

"Saturday Night Live" was left with some big shoes to fill when Amy Poehler departed for her new role of motherhood.

As a step in that direction, two fresh recruits, Abby Elliott and Michaela Watkins, will be joining the show this week as featured players, NBC announced Thursday. Elliott comes to "SNL" via the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre -- the improv/sketch company co-founded by Poehler -- where she trained and performed in both New York and Los Angeles. She is a second-generation "SNL" cast member whose father, Chris Elliott, was a regular on the show during the 1994-95 season. (Her grandfather, Bob Elliott, was teamed for four decades with Ray Goulding in the comedy duo Bob & Ray.)

www.cnn.com...

With her publicized pregnancy over the course of the past few months and early parts of the current season, I guess it's not a huge shocker that she is leaving the show.. but it is still really disappointing. I think the last 2-3 years of SNL has really been a turning point after a few dark years in the shadow of great cast members like Will Ferrell, Jimmy Fallon, and Tina Fey leaving the show. I thought they struggled for a few seasons until Poehler found her footing along with Seth Meyer, among others.

But Poehler leaving is disappointing nonetheless.

reply to post by chissler


Yeah, that's too bad, she is hilarious. So is her husband btw.
I'm sure she'll do some cameos for some Hillary stuff.

She really has a broad comic range.
It's a loss for the show, although I noticed they still mentioned her name on the Weekend Update intro.

How did you like last night's show, by the way?
I noticed they had to bring Justin Timberlake into a few skits. He wasn't the host, or the musical guest. But he was the funniest person on the show last night.

reply to post by spacedoubt


Last night's show was good.
Did you notice the reactionary undercurrent to the passing of prop 8 culminating with the last sketch?

Damn it.

I truly thought today was Saturday and was getting ready for tonight's episode. I was out last night for the UFC event and completely forgot to set a recording. One better, I woke up today thinking it was Saturday.

Aghh! Well, good news is I don't have to wait until tomorrow for Entourage!

reply to post by schrodingers dog


I sure did notice that!
The whole 90 minutes seemed to thumb it's nose at the results of Prop 8.
They might have gone a little overboard with the gay jokes.
But with Paul Rudd being as unfunny as he was, and Amy Poehler missing from the cast, Timberlake seemed to help pull it out of the dumps.

reply to post by chissler


Chissler, the top six videos on the SNL Video page are from last night's show.
Otherwise they will surely rerun it. They only do about 15 shows a year these days.

I really haven't followed SNL for a long time. I just didn't enjoy the Jimmy Fallon (Fallen?) era and that was when I stopped watching. Amy was funny though. It is too bad she is gone. Hopefully her movie career will take off.

reply to post by Karlhungis


I always thought Jimmy Fallon was a poor imitation of Mike Myers. I like the cast, but I think they need to change writers. You can tell Tina Fey did most of the writing as the show has been pretty bad this and last season (except for some bright moments here and there). Fire all the writers (including Seth), and start from scratch. Or cancel it like they are Mad TV.

reply to post by kidflash2008


Fire the writers? Including Seth?

I'm a huge fan of Seth's work. I think some skits fail because they put the wrong character in the wrong situation. Last night's episode was really good I thought. The skit with Tim McGraw & the Casino Royale bit was hilarious. As well the skit with Samberg in the studio with Ludacris & T-Pain.

Some of the over-the-top characters that work for Kristen Wiig and Jason Sudekis don't seem to work for Frem Armisen or Bill Hader. And I think these over-the-top roles that miss really hurt the overall delivery of the show.

The show itself is a victim of it's own success. People get their start on SNL and when they become successful, recognizable, and the crowds look forward to seeing them... they leave for films, etc. Then the audience is forced to start from scratch again with another crop that is only going to leave as well.

Amy leaving the show left a gaping void that I thought was obvious last night.

reply to post by chissler


Hey, she's on doing her Clinton right now.

Yeah I pretty much expected it, but it still sucks. I really liked her, she was funny.

The promos of her show seem pretty funny. It looks like it is different from "The Office", although it will have the same format. I will give it a try when it airs.

I like Amy, but not sure if she can carry a show... I'd much rather see her join Tina on 30 Rock or something....

Abby Elliot's Angelina Jolie was pretty funny though, so maybe there's some upcoming talent there....

reply to post by Gazrok


I think the show will be an ensemble show just like the first "Office" and "30 Rock". I think she shines the best when there are others to play off against.

Abdolutely...her characters tend to be so ridiculous, that they need a "straight man" (or gal) so to speak...

Hey guys, just dropping in to let ya'll know that tomorrow night NBC is airing "The Best of Amy Poehler" for the first time.

I set my recording for it about a week ago. Looking forward to seeing it.

Watched the Best of Amy.
it was pretty good. I found myself laughing at almost every skit..
A rarity, when it's a regular show.

Looking back over the years, it' amazing to see her range of characters.
it was also a chance to see Maya Rudolph again. Maya was another one of my favorite cast members.

reply to post by chissler


Hey, I just started watching the SNL Weekend Update Thursday on the dvr and Amy is back.

Sweet!