Abby Elliott (Getty Images)

In a surprising off-season announcement, comedy heiress Abby Elliott announced she won't be returning to Saturday Night Live on September 15th. In 2008, Elliott—whose grandfather is comedy legend Bob Elliott and whose father, Chris Elliott, is an SNL alum—became one of the youngest cast members in the show's history at age 21. She is the fourth performer to leave after last season's finale, following Kristen Wiig, Andy Samberg and possibly Jason Sudeikis.

The news of Ms. Elliott's departure was given as an exclusive to Splitsider.com, the comedy website spun off of the Awl.com ... which makes sense, as Splitsider's editor in chief Adam Frucci (who also wrote the post about Ms. Elliott) is dating SNL writer Sarah Schnieder. Ms. Elliott and Ms. Schneider shared an office and collaborated on sketches including the famously funny 'Bein Quirky with Zooey Deschanel.'

No word yet on how this will affect the cast for the show's 39th season, or if Lorne Michaels will be auditioning any more women to join the ensemble.

"Gawker was a great gig, but it feels really good to be doing my own thing now," wrote Adam Frucci, the site's editor, in an email to the Media Mob this afternoon. Mr. Frucci left Gizmodo, a Gawker Media blog, to launch the site as part of The Awl Network. The Awl was co-founded by former Gawker editors, too.

We asked Mr. Frucci how he would find a balance on the blog between covering news about comedy and just posting things that are funny (there is a mix of both on the site now). "The sweet spot is news about comedy that people are actually interested in, so not getting too granular," he wrote. "I want to be able to cover the big news that comedy fans are interested in while also showcasing the best comedy videos, articles and other things published every day."

Mr. Frucci, who will be relying on a host of contributors and columnists to help fill the site, said that he has been working from his "home office in Brooklyn, the same place I wrote for Gizmodo from."

Welcome to Splitsider [Splitsider]

Earlier: The Awl Will Launch a Comedy Blog

Associate editor Adam Frucci is leaving Gizmodo after four years to lead The Awl's comedy site, which will be called Splitsider. "I'm very, very excited about it," Mr. Frucci wrote in a goodbye post yesterday on Gizmodo, the Gawker Media technology blog. He practices improvisational comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in Chelsea.

Both Mr. Sicha and Mr. Balk, the lead writers on The Awl's flagship blog, are veterans of Gawker as well.

Publisher David Cho told Nieman Journalism Lab in June that his site would be tripling in size, and that he already had lead writers in place for the new sites. Mr. Cho said at the time that he already knew what one of the topics would be and that he was working with the lead writer to select a topic for the second blog that would be agreeable to advertisers.

The next site, which isn't planned to launch for some months, is expected to focus on women's interests.

Mr. Sicha was tight-lipped when we asked for comment. "We just have a policy of showing instead of telling," he said.