This Is Actually the Second Time ‘SNL’ Cut Chloe Troast

They say that the first cut is the deepest, but the second has to hurt even more for Chloe Troast, the rookie Saturday Night Live cast member who got the axe this week. As Troast revealed in a cast Q&A video last year, this isn’t the first time SNL has let her know she wasn’t wanted.

Before Troast was hired for Season 49, she came this close to getting the job in Season 48. In response to the question, “How did you become a cast member?” Troast revealed that she’d tried out for SNL the previous year as well. “I auditioned last year and I got in and I missed sound check. And I was like, ‘Well, they’re not here for me anyway,’ so I just kind of went out there and did it.”

Troast’s “what the hell?” approach worked — at least at first. “I got to the meetings with Lorne last year, and there were six of us,” she said. “And then they took five.” It’s not clear who the fifth person was here — SNL added four new cast members in Season 48: Marcello Hernandez, Molly Kearney, Michael Longfellow and Devon Walker. But the point remains — Troast passed the auditions, was working with the new cast members and meeting with Lorne Michaels, and then got cut before the season started.

Troast didn’t give up, though, screen-testing again for Season 49. “I did a lot of characters,” she said. “Then a couple of days later, I got a meeting with Lorne and he told me you’ll be here. Kind of cryptic, but he was right.”

Until Michaels cut her again this week. Brutal. As she explained in a TikTok video, “this was not my choice.”

“I wish I was there getting to be with my friends,” she confessed. “It truly felt like a second home. Thank you to everyone. I love you all.”