{"id":327702,"date":"2025-12-21T06:23:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T06:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/327702\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T06:23:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T06:23:10","slug":"bowen-yang-breaks-his-silence-on-snl-exit-mid-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/327702\/","title":{"rendered":"Bowen Yang breaks his silence on SNL exit mid-season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Your support helps us to tell the story<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 iCTyfe\">From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it&#8217;s investigating the financials of Elon Musk&#8217;s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, &#8216;The A Word&#8217;, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 iCTyfe\">At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 iCTyfe\">The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n<p>Your support makes all the difference.Read more<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/arts-entertainment\/tv\/news\/snl-bowen-yang-shane-gillis-podcast-b2818946.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bowen Yang<\/a> has broken his silence on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/arts-entertainment\/tv\/news\/bowen-yang-saturday-night-live-exit-b2888022.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">his imminent exit from Saturday Night Live<\/a> after seven years. <\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/arts-entertainment\/tv\/news\/snl-aimee-lou-wood-bowen-yang-white-lotus-skit-b2736666.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">actor and comedian<\/a>, 35, shared a carousel of images on Instagram Saturday, the day of his last episode on the show. The images show Yang at 30 Rock alongside his fellow cast members. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI loved working at SNL, and most of all i loved the people. i was there at a time when many things in the world started to seem futile, but working at 30 rock taught me the value in showing up anyway when people make it worthwhile,\u201d his lengthy caption began. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m grateful for every minute of my time there. i learned about myself (bad with wigs). i learned about others (generous, vulnerable, hot). i learned that human error can be nothing but correct. i learned that comedy is mostly logistics and that it will usually fail until it doesn\u2019t, which is the besssst.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He continued by thanking all of the writers and cast members, in addition to all of his loved ones, for attending the show. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-2240219899.jpeg\"  loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Actor and comedian Bowen Yang expressed how grateful he was for his time on \u2018Saturday Night Live\u2019 in an Instagram post ahead of his final episode on December 20\" class=\"sc-1mc30lb-0 ggpMaE\"\/>Actor and comedian Bowen Yang expressed how grateful he was for his time on \u2018Saturday Night Live\u2019 in an Instagram post ahead of his final episode on December 20 (Getty Images for Girls Write Now)<\/p>\n<p>Yang also thanked his Wicked co-star, Ariana Grande, for being the host of his last episode as he wrote, \u201cthank you to ari for sending me off in the dreamiest way i could imagine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Many people commented on the post, expressing how excited they were for Yang\u2019s next step and how much they will miss seeing him on the show. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cHappy for your new path because i&#8217;ll always be a fan, but will really miss seeing you every week,\u201d one comment read, while another agreed, writing: \u201cI am going to miss you terribly &#8211; but I\u2019m so excited for your next chapter! You deserve all the success in the world!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Variety first reported Friday that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/arts-entertainment\/tv\/news\/bowen-yang-saturday-night-live-exit-b2888022.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Yang would be leaving SNL<\/a>. He joined the show in 2018 as a writer before being promoted to a cast member the following year. <\/p>\n<p>Throughout the last few years, Yang has worked outside of the sketch show in other acting roles, such as appearing in Wicked and this year\u2019s sequel, Wicked: For Good. He also starred in the romantic comedy,The Wedding Banquet. He is set for a voice role in next year\u2019s animated adaptation of The Cat In The Hat.<\/p>\n<p>Yang\u2019s departure from SNL, midway through a season, is unusual but not unprecedented, with the likes of Cecily Strong, Molly Shannon, Dana Carvey and Eddie Murphy also leaving midseason in past years.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/bowen-yang-says-he-feels-like-he-has-more-to-do-at-snl-amid-massive-cast-and-crew-departures-exclusive-11809411\">People<\/a> in September, Yang said he felt he had \u201cmore to do\u201d at the show but also worried the audience was \u201cgetting sick\u201d of him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;ve always gone by the instinct of, do I have more to do? And I feel like I do,\u201d he said of his decision to stay at the time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven Lorne and I talked about it, and Lorne was like, \u2018You have more to do,\u2019 and that means a lot, because I even confessed to him. I was like, \u2018I feel the audience is maybe getting sick of me.\u2019 And he was like, \u2018That\u2019s not true. There\u2019s more for you to do. I need you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,391,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-327702","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-tv","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}