{"id":194682,"date":"2025-12-21T08:59:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T08:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/194682\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T08:59:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T08:59:13","slug":"bowen-yang-tearfully-bids-farewell-to-saturday-night-live-with-the-help-of-cher-and-ariana-grande","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/194682\/","title":{"rendered":"Bowen Yang tearfully bids farewell to \u2018Saturday Night Live\u2019 with the help of Cher and Ariana Grande"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Bowen Yang got teary-eyed during the final sketch on Saturday\u2019s episode of \u201cSaturday Night Live,\u201d which was his last<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n The 5-time Primetime Emmy nominee \u2013 who confirmed via his social media<\/a> earlier on Saturday that he was retiring from \u201cSNL\u201d after the telecast \u2013 played a Delta Sky Club employee working his last shift at the airport on Christmas Eve, armed with a broken eggnog machine.\n <\/p>\n

\n Various cast members came up to him posing as holiday travelers, and it soon became clear that the skit was a vehicle to send Yang off.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThis is my last shift. It\u2019s sad. I\u2019m gonna miss everything about this place. The way it smells,\u201d he told fellow cast members, including Andrew Dismukes.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe celebrities who come through. Just last week, Josh O\u2019Connor came through,\u201d Yang added jokingly, in a nod to last week\u2019s \u201cSNL\u201d host.\n <\/p>\n

\n He soon called his elderly wife at home, who was played by this weekend\u2019s host, Ariana Grande, and was later joined by both her and the night\u2019s musical guest Cher for a rendition of The Eagles\u2019 \u201cPlease Come Home for Christmas.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n At one point Yang broke down while expressing gratitude for his time on the long-running NBC sketch show.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI just feel so lucky that I ever got to work here. And I just wanted to enjoy it for a little bit longer. Especially the people. I\u2019ve loved every single person who works here,\u201d he said tearfully.\n <\/p>\n

\n Yang\u2019s midseason departure from the show follows several other cast members who revealed they were leaving ahead of the start of Season 51, which included Devon Walker<\/a>, Ego Nwodim<\/a>, Heidi Gardner<\/a>, Emil Wakim<\/a> and others.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cSNL\u201d will resume with a new episode on January 17, 2026, with host Finn Wolfhard of \u201cStranger Things<\/a>\u201d and musical guest A$AP Rocky.\n <\/p>\n