On Thursday, "Saturday Night Live" executive producer Lorne Michaels announced that Michael Che would replace Cecily Strong as the new "Weekend Update" co-anchor on "SNL."

"Michael is a strong writer, and he's really funny," Lorne Michaels told the New York Times. "It's always difficult to make changes and make 'Update' different from what's gone before."

He continued, "This is about a new era, what feels appropriate for now. That's why we did a lot of combinations and tests, and this is kind of where we came out."

Prior to his recently announced "SNL" co-anchor gig, Che was an "SNL" writer last season and a correspondent for "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," E! News reports.

Following the announcement of his new role on "SNL" Che took to Twitter to thank those that congratulated him and thank "The Daily Show" for allowing him to move on in his career.

"i wanna thank Jon & the entire ‪@TheDailyShow staff for letting me do this. i had a FANTASTIC time there. 1st class all the way," Che tweeted on Thursday.

He also tweeted, "got a lot of strange congratulations on the gig. the strangest coming from tinder. guess its time to delete that.."

Che's co-anchor partner on the "Weekend Update" will be "SNL" head writer Colin Jost, who replaced Seth Meyers on "Update" back in February. [E! News]

"For the first time, the 'Weekend Update" segment will have two men at the anchor desk," The New York Times reports.

Though Cecily Strong will no longer be featured as a "Weekend Update" co-anchor, the funny lady will return to "SNL" as a regular cast member and will reprise her popular "SNL" character, "The Girl You Wish You Hadn't Started a Conversation With at a Party," E! News reports.

The decision to move Strong off of the "Weekend Update" bench came from Strong's request that she be featured in more sketches on the show, Michaels explained to The NY Times.

The new season of "SNL" returns on Sept. 27 on NBC. Chris Pratt will host the new season's first episode and Ariana Grande will be featured as the musical guest.

Related