![\"Saturday](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/e937aca6c462b36bf923bac69e9f892751-Bowen-Yang.rsquare.w330.jpg\")
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\n He left early.
\n Photo: Will Heath\/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images\n <\/p>\n
Seeing that Bowen Yang was going to be part of Variety\u2019s Actors on Actors<\/a> panel this year was a shock: What was he promoting, exactly? But cast your mind back to 2025, and you\u2019ll remember that he was a cast member for the first half of Saturday Night Live<\/a> season 51. He used his interview with I Love LA<\/a> star Rachel Sennott to explain his absence in the second half. \u201cI was kind of resolute, the season before, about leaving,\u201d he told her. \u201cThere was a lot of uncertainty about what the show would look like after season 50. I was like, \u2018I think the show is in a great place without me.\u2019 I never felt like I was that central to it, to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n Sennott, of course, disagreed with Yang \u2014 and seemingly so did the Emmys as Yang has been nominated four times for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. But he explained himself. \u201cI never played the dad or the straight-man teacher,\u201d Yang said. \u201cI was always there as the seasoning, and I\u2019m like, \u2018That\u2019s great. I\u2019m so lucky. I can\u2019t believe I have a steady job in comedy. I will cherish it for the rest of my life.\u2019 And I just felt like it was the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n Well, why didn\u2019t he leave sooner? Because someone important told him that he was, in fact, central. \u201cLorne called me while I was at the U.S. Open eating Coqodaq chicken, and he was like, \u2018Listen, you should come back. These are the people I\u2019ve hired. It\u2019s a lot of new kids, and a lot of people left. You should be there to set an example for them, at least in the first half of the season. I\u2019m telling you, it would be very important.\u2019\u201d So Yang returned to see the show through half a season\u2019s worth of character work and to shepherd the next generation of cast members into their glory. It\u2019s Jeremy Culhane\u2019s<\/a> 30 Rock, now.<\/p>\n Sign up for the Vulture Daily<\/p>\n An entertainment newsletter for the pop-culture obsessed.<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n