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Bowen Yang is sharing more insight into his decision to officially step away from Saturday Night Live.
“This is honestly what’s behind it. It’s time. Like, you would do seven seasons and then you would scoot,” Yang, 35, said during the Wednesday, January 7, episode of his “Las Culturistas” podcast. “COVID and the current media landscape, the current entertainment ecosystem is so turbulent that people have completely valid reasons for staying longer or in a lot of cases, don’t have the privilege of staying on as long as they would like to.”
He added, “I have this very beautiful thing where I get to say that I stayed on exactly as long as I wanted to. Maybe, I’m sure — and I’ve said this before — I was maybe unsure about going back in the summer and I’m so glad I did.”
Yang’s SNL career began in 2018 when he was hired as a writer. He joined the cast one year later. News broke on December 19 that Yang was leaving the show after seven seasons.
“I 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,” Yang wrote via Instagram on December 20, hours before his final episode aired. “I’m 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’t, which is the besssst.”
Along with thanking fellow castmates and writers, Yang gave a shout-out to Lorne Michaels for setting “the standard” and “for bringing everyone at work together. they all care deeply about people in the room, any room, enjoying themselves. I can’t believe I was ever included in that.”
Yang’s last SNL episode was hosted by his friend and Wicked costar Ariana Grande, with Cher as the musical guest. During his podcast on Wednesday, Yang reflected on his thoughts and feelings after leaving SNL with cohost and BFF Matt Rogers.
Keep scrolling for everything Yang said about his SNL departure on “Las Culturistas:”
His Final Sketch
Yang could barely hold back tears throughout his final sketch, in which he played a Delta employee finishing his last shift before retirement. At 12:55 a.m. on December 21, Yang still didn’t know if “that sketch was going to go to air,” noting there were “a million reasons” it could be cut from the live show.
“Nothing is guaranteed,” Yang continued. “That is, sort of in a nutshell, like, it is perfectly illustrative of what that job is. It was resonant all the way through to the end.”
Initially, Yang was worried that the sketch wouldn’t be as emotional as he wanted.
“I was sobbing at the read-through,” he recalled. “In the sketch, I say, ‘I’ve loved everyone here. I’ve loved every single person who works here.’ Like, I immediately broke down because I was telling the truth.”
Cher’s Involvement
At first, Yang didn’t know if Cher would be in his final sketch. She finally agreed to appear on the morning of the live show.
“She was like, ‘Can I just say, like, you were perfect?’ And she was like, ‘I just want to kiss him,’ or something,” Yang said. “Then we had to go and pitch to her that … we would love if she sang with us at the end.”
The Show’s Energy
Rogers said that he’s happy Yang is “excited” about other things in his career.
“I didn’t know how you were going to feel after it ended. Because it does warp you a little bit. Like, I can give that take now that you’re not there,” Rogers said. “There were times where I would come to the show and you would be there, and I was like, ‘What happened to you?’ … The energy could alternately be so high and unbelievable and the best energy you could ever experience or through the floor to the point where I’m like, ‘Why are we even doing this?’”
Reflection on ‘SNL’
“That is one of the most meaningful experiences I will ever have,” Yang said, noting that SNL taught him “how to work under what seems like an immense amount of pressure.”
He also admitted that he experienced “the full spectrum” of emotions because of the culture of the show.
“Working there is completely disregulating, emotionally. Either you are soaring or you are, like, completely in the dumps,” Yang explained. “It is time encroaching on you emotionally, physically, process-wise, creatively. It is all those things bearing down on you.”
Everyone Showed Up
Yang got emotional about the “outpouring” of love for his final show.
“Basically everyone who worked there is on the floor showing up. I just looked out and I thought, ‘I’m so lucky that I ever got to work here,’” he said through tears. “I’m so lucky that I get to make this little statement that’s barely veiled, where I’m like, ‘I love you all.’”
Working With Ariana Grande
Rogers praised Grande for being “unselfish” about Yang’s last sketch.
“Not every host would be like, ‘Yeah, let me give up the whole last sketch of this, six minutes of the time for this cast member.’ But it was her and she did that,” Rogers told listeners. “That’s not only because she’s a good friend, it’s because she’s a really professional host who doesn’t have, like, an ego about her time there, which I think is pretty cool and worth calling out.”
