Bowen Yang to exit ‘Saturday Night Live’ after 8 seasons – National

Bowen Yang is exiting Saturday Night Live (SNL) in the middle of his eighth season on the iconic sketch comedy show.

His final episode as a cast member will be this Saturday’s episode, hosted by his Wicked co-star Ariana Grande with Cher as musical guest, Variety reports.

Yang, 35, first joined SNL as part of the writing staff in September 2018 ahead of the show’s 44th season. A year later he became a cast member for the show’s 45th season.

The comedian teased an exit from SNL during an interview with People back in April.

“With SNL, like I said, it’s this growing, living thing where new people come in and you do have to sort of make way for them and to grow and to keep elevating themselves,” he said at the time. “And that inevitably requires me to sort of hang it up at some point — but I don’t know what the vision is yet.”

Yang’s work on SNL has earned him Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 2021, 2022, 2024 and 2025. He was also nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series in 2019.

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Yang becomes the latest cast member to leave midseason following Cecily Strong, who left the show in December 2022 during Season 48.

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The announcement of Yang’s exit follows a major shakeup with several SNL stars revealing their departures from the hit series in September.

Devon Walker addressed his exit after three seasons in an Instagram post, writing, “Me and baby broke up.”

Walker’s post was followed by the announcement that Ego Nwodim, Emil Wakim, Michael Longfellow and Heidi Gardner will also not be returning to the show.

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‘Saturday Night Live’ Season 51 airs Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET on Global.

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