As it heads into its 42nd season and an autumn that is teeming with potential for political satire, “Saturday Night Live” is undergoing some visible changes and shedding three performers from its ensemble.
Taran Killam and Jay Pharoah, principal cast members who had been with “S.N.L.” since 2010 and contributed many key impersonations on the program, are both leaving the show, as is Jon Rudnitsky, a featured player who appeared during the 2015-16 season.
Their departures were confirmed by Lauren Roseman, a press representative for NBC.
Presidential contests tend to bring added focus and intensity to “S.N.L.,” which will have its season premiere on Oct. 1. That NBC sketch comedy series is renowned for its sendups of the electoral horse race, its lampooning of political figures and appearances from their real-life counterparts.
Mr. Killam, who was promoted to the main cast of “S.N.L.” in 2012, had contributed impressions of Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan. Mr. Killam had briefly played the Republican presidential nominee, Donald J. Trump, but ceded that role to Darrell Hammond, who has played Mr. Trump for several decades.
Mr. Pharoah, who was also promoted to the main cast in 2012, had been the show’s resident impersonator of President Obama and Ben Carson.
Mr. Killam, an alumnus of the Groundlings comedy troupe and a star of films like “The Heat,” told the website Uproxx that, though he still had one year remaining on his seven-year contract, he was not being brought back to the show.
“I had sort of had it in my head I would make this upcoming year my last year, but then heard they weren’t going to pick up my contract,” Mr. Killam said in the Uproxx interview. “I was never given a reason why, really. I can assume until the cows come home.”
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A representative for Mr. Pharoah declined to comment. Representatives for Mr. Rudnitsky also declined to comment.
While these changes hardly represent a complete overhaul, they are among the more significant at “S.N.L.” in recent years.
Its 39th season, which concluded in the spring of 2014, was the last for the main cast members Seth Meyers (now the host of NBC’s “Late Night”) and Nasim Pedrad, as well as several featured players. After its 2012-13 season, the show said goodbye to Fred Armisen, Bill Hader and Jason Sudeikis, while Kristen Wiig, Andy Samberg and Abby Elliott left after the 2011-12 season.
“S.N.L.” producers continue to spend the summer scouting for talent, and the show is expected to make new hires for the fall, though NBC gave no indication on Tuesday of who was being considered or how many cast members might join.
The show still has a go-to impressionist for Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, who has been played by Kate McKinnon, a star of this summer’s “Ghostbusters” reboot.
(Meanwhile, Leslie Jones, Ms. McKinnon’s “S.N.L” and “Ghostbusters” co-star, has also seen her status rise this summer, and has been added to NBC’s coverage of the 2016 Summer Olympics after following the Games in an unofficial capacity on her Twitter account.)
In 2008 and 2012, “Saturday Night Live” broadcast additional episodes on Thursday nights, emphasizing political comedy, in the weeks before Election Day, though NBC has not announced similar plans for this year.
Last season, Mr. Trump hosted “S.N.L.” on Nov. 7, 2015, while he was still vying for the Republican presidential nomination. Mrs. Clinton, while still contending for the Democratic nomination, appeared in a sketch with Ms. McKinnon on the Oct. 3, 2015, broadcast.
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