Michael LambertSaturday Night Live may have finally found a new voice in new lead writers Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider.
The duo was promoted to helm the show’s content during a time of upheaval at the classic NBC live comedy show. Three performers—Jay Pharoah, Taran Killam, and Jon Rudnitsky—were recently fired from the cast.
Schneider will be the show’s first female head writer since 2008, Vanity Fair reported.
Kelly and Schneider both come from online, viral humor and have worked on popular SNL sketches such as “The Beygency” and the “Bar Talk” between presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and cast member Kate McKinnon, who, like Kelly, is openly gay.
The show hopes to appeal to a more diverse, more digitally focused millennial audience. By promoting the two writers, SNL’s next season will be “primed to be more gay, female, and viral-friendly under the stewardship of Schneider and Kelly,” according to Vanity Fair.
At least this means no more offensive Anderson Cooper impressions—hopefully.
Kelly has also written the feature-film Other People, releasing this September.
00Saturday Night Live Promotes Gay, Female Comedians to Lead Writers