“Saturday Night Live” alum Devon Walker is speaking candidly about the show’s protocol for letting cast members go.

“There is a measure of humanity that the show could benefit from. What ends up happening over the summer is oftentimes people are left hanging with big life decisions — people trying to start families or buy homes — and there’s no word from the show about whether they have their job,” Walker, 34, said during a Wednesday, Sept. 3, interview with Variety. “The show won’t tell them all summer and then will ultimately end up firing them when there’s been months of them trying to work their situation out. That wasn’t my situation, but I’ve known of situations where that’s happened.”

Walker announced last week that he won’t be back for season 51 of “SNL.” In an Instagram statement, he noted that the show could be “toxic as hell” at times. He wouldn’t go into specifics during his chat with Variety.

“If you read about the show, if you’re knowledgeable about it at all, you can certainly pick up on things that are toxic about it,” he said. “The show hasn’t changed much in all the years they’ve been doing it. There are things that went down on the show that I wouldn’t talk about for free. There are a lot of things I’m still trying to find the right avenue to go into detail about.”

NJ.com has reached out to NBC for comment.

Walker joined the cast of “SNL” for season 48 in 2022. In the days after he announced his exit, it was confirmed that Emil Wakim, Michael Longfellow, and Heidi Gardner are also leaving the show. Wakim wrote via Instagram that it was “a gut punch” not being asked to return, while Longfellow noted in a statement that he wishes he was staying longer.

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As for Walker, he told Variety that he has “no qualms with the amount of time [he] did” on “SNL.” However, he still thinks the sketch comedy show could handle cast departures better.

“If there’s one thing I hope for the future of the show, it’s that a sprinkle of humanity could be added into it. I understand it’s show business and it’s cutthroat, but people have lives, and people deserve to know the status of their job at a reasonable juncture,” Walker said. “Most people are told they’re coming back to work in a week.”

As of this writing, it seems that Michael Che, Mikey Day, Andrew Dismukes, Chloe Fineman, Marcello Hernández, James Austin Johnson, Colin Jost, Ego Nwodim, Sarah Sherman, Kenan Thompson, Bowen Yang, Ashley Padilla, and Jane Wickline will all return for season 51 of “SNL.”

There are also five new cast members: Veronika Slowikowska, Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane, Kam Patterson, and Ben Marshall.

Season 51 of “Saturday Night Live” premieres on NBC on Saturday, October 4. Past episodes are available to stream on Peacock.

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