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“Saturday Night Live” chief Lorne Michaels axed sketches with Pete Davidson at the 11th hour — following his desperate Instagram post on Saturday.

A source told Page Six: “The decision was taken to give Pete a break on Saturday night – his sketches were dropped before the early evening rehearsals.

“Lorne has pledged to help all he can, including sending Pete to get help. Everyone on the cast is hugely protective of him and were obviously upset — particularly Colin Jost and Michael Che on ‘Weekend Update.’”

It’s believed that Davidson will return to the show in the New Year when it’s back on air – and there have been no conversations about him taking time off, sources tell us.

Longtime executive producer Michaels made the decision to scrap the sketches after Davidson posted the alarming message: “i really don’t want to be on this earth anymore. i’m doing my best to stay here for you but i actually don’t know how much longer i can last.”

This prompted NYPD cops to conduct a wellness check at the 30 Rock studios, while Ariana Grande – Davidson’s ex – turned up to see him, but the comic refused to see her, according to TMZ.

Davidson only made one appearance, to introduce Miley Cyrus, Mark Ronson and Sean Lennon and their performance of John Lennon’s “Happy Christmas (War is Over).”

His only other appearance during Saturday’s episode was in a pre-taped sketch on celebrity auditions to host the Oscars, where he played Rami Malek.

While the cast and stars including Cyrus and fiancé Liam Hemsworth kicked back at the afterparty, Davidson left the studios with friend Machine Gun Kelly who had jumped on a flight to see him.

MGK had posted: “im in the plane now on the way to see Pete. gonna make sure he’s good, i promise. can’t have my boy in the darkness like that.” Grande was nowhere to be seen during the live show.

Davidson — who revealed he’s moved back in with his mom Amy since his split from Grande — entered a treatment program in December 2016. But in September, he told Howard Stern he went back to drinking and smoking following his diagnosis of borderline personality disorder.

“I was sober for three months at one point and was like this f—ing sucks,” he said.

He said he smokes marijuana to help with his Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammatory bowel disease that affects the lining of the digestive tract after his weight plummeted to 110 pounds.

During an interview with Peter Rosenberg on “Open Late” in June, Davidson said that the “party’s back on” and joked that he immediately started smoking marijuana again after receiving his BPD diagnosis.

“I found out I had a mental disorder. I thought I had a drug problem,” he said. “It’s a completely different thing.”

If you, or anyone you know, is suffering, call a suicide prevention hotline, such as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK