{"id":442286,"date":"2026-02-01T06:07:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T06:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/442286\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T06:07:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T06:07:09","slug":"kenan-thompson-says-he-definitely-thinks-about-leaving-snl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/442286\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenan Thompson Says He ‘Definitely’ Thinks About Leaving ‘SNL’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tKenan Thompson<\/a> recently told People<\/a> that he \u201cdefinitely\u201d thinks about leaving \u201cSaturday Night Live<\/a>\u201d and fears saying goodbye is \u201cgonna suck.\u201d Thompson has been on \u201cSNL\u201d since 2003.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s just so many layers to it. It\u2019s not just the on-screen that you see in that one, you know, camera shot,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cIt\u2019s so many people behind the scenes and years and years and years with each one of those people. So it\u2019s gonna be a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe then joked, \u201cI might have to just rip the bandaid and run out the back door and not say nothing to nobody and just write letters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs \u201cSNL\u2019s\u201d longest tenured cast member, Thompson has seen plenty of his co-stars come and go. He said it is \u201cusually always sad\u201d when someone leaves the show. \u201cSNL\u201d Season 51 saw the departures of several long-time cast members, with the most recent exit being Bowen Yang.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s tough for me because I have yet to have the moment,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cYou know, if I was on the other side of it, I\u2019d be a little more like, \u2018Yeah, you know, it\u2019s all good,\u2019 like, \u2018Shake it off\u2019 kind of thing. But, like, I\u2019m dreading the moment. I might collapse in the moment because it\u2019s been so many years and so many relationships and just\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe continued, \u201cThat\u2019s gonna be a drastic change at this point that I never thought, you know, \u2018SNL\u2019 would be such a large component in my life. I never thought I\u2019d even get the job in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBack in May of 2025, Thompson hinted at the major cast shakeup<\/a> in Season 51. Heidi Gardner, Devon Walker, Michael Longfellow and Emil Wakim all left before the season kicked off, with Yang being the last to leave partway through.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEspecially this year where it feels like there\u2019s maybe, possibly, a lot of change next year,\u201d Thompson told Page Six. \u201cYou want everyone to stay forever, knowing that people may be making decisions this summer\u2026it\u2019s always like you want your kids to stay young.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA smattering of fresh faces joined \u201cSNL\u201d for Season 51, including Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane, Kam Patterson and Veronika Slowikowska. Of the new additions, \u201cSNL\u201d mastermind Lorne Michaels told Entertainment Tonight<\/a>, \u201cChange is good. The people we\u2019re bringing in, I\u2019m really excited about.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kenan Thompson recently told People that he \u201cdefinitely\u201d thinks about leaving \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d and fears saying goodbye…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[88,89423,12015,92],"class_list":["post-442286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-kenan-thompson","tag-saturday-night-live","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}