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# Wait, ‘SNL’ chose to not renew Heidi Gardner’s contract?
- URL: https://www.theomnicosm.com/wait-snl-chose-to-not-renew-heidi-gardners-contract/
- Published: 2025-09-05T11:01:16.000Z
- Updated: 2026-02-03T03:03:16.000Z
- Description: It turns out Lorne Michaels’ big reinvention of the show going into Season 51 was just ... letting Gardner walk?
- Author: Bill Kuchman
- Tags: The Cold Open • News, The Cold Open, SNL, Heidi Gardner

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****Deep SNL Thoughts** is now **The Cold Open**. New name. Same extensive **SNL* coverage.

[Read more ](https://www.theomnicosm.com/deep-snl-thoughts-is-now-the-cold-open) 

Unless there’s more news coming, it sounds like the massive reinvention of *SNL* that **Lorne Michaels** promised going into the upcoming season was just ... that he didn’t renew **Heidi Gardner**’s contract? 

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OK, we also saw [three other cast members leave the show](https://www.theomnicosm.com/heidi-gardner-leads-the-snl-exodus/), but Gardner is the only longtime *SNL* vet who we’ve learned is gone. (She was the longest-tenured female cast member.) And according to a new report, it wasn’t by her choice.

> Heidi Gardner’s contract with *Saturday Night Live* was not renewed for Season 51, an insider exclusively tells *The Post*.  
>  
> “It’s time for a new cast,” the insider said.

The *New York Post* also notes that **Dana Carvey** and **David Spade** discussed Gardner’s exit during their podcast, with Carvey noting that from “what I know as of this recording, that it was not her idea to leave.” [***(New York Post)***](https://nypost.com/2025/09/04/entertainment/heidi-gardners-snl-contract-was-not-renewed-for-season-51/?ref=theomnicosm.com)

*This *Deep SNL Thoughts* story appeared in* [*the Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, edition of *Popculturology**](https://www.theomnicosm.com/james-gunn-sets-man-of-tomorrow-as-his-superman-follow-up)*.*

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