{"id":38124,"date":"2025-12-21T00:21:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T00:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/bowen-yang-to-leave-snl-cast-after-saturdays-episode-in-shock-exit\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T00:21:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T00:21:20","slug":"bowen-yang-to-leave-snl-cast-after-saturdays-episode-in-shock-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/bowen-yang-to-leave-snl-cast-after-saturdays-episode-in-shock-exit\/","title":{"rendered":"Bowen Yang to leave \u2018SNL\u2019 cast after Saturday\u2019s episode in shock exit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1270\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/live-bowen-yang.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full wp-post-image\" alt=\"Bowen Yang\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Bowen Yang is exiting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/series\/saturday-night-live\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Saturday Night Live<\/em><\/a> after eight seasons on the late-night sketch show.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"post-content-read-more\">\n<li><strong>READ MORE:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/reviews\/film-reviews\/saturday-night-review-gabriel-labelle-emily-fairn-3832929\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u2018Saturday Night\u2019 review: chaotic, inspiring but where are the laughs?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In a shock exit reported by <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2025\/tv\/news\/bowen-yang-exit-snl-cast-1236612812\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><em>Variety<\/em><\/a>, his last appearance as a cast member will be on tonight\u2019s (Saturday 20) episode, with representatives for both Yang and the show so far declining to comment on the move.<\/p>\n<p>Yang first joined as a writer in 2018 for Season 44, later joining the main cast in Season 47, and his time on the show has earned him repeated nominations for the supporting comedy actor Emmy category.<\/p>\n<p>His exit follows a major exodus that preceded the 51st season, with Ego Nwodim, Heidi Gardner, Michael Longfellow, Devon Walker, Emil Wakim, and John Higgins all recently departing the show.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/cher\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cher<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/ariana-grande\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ariana Grande<\/a> are among the stars rounding off the year for \u2018<em>SNL<\/em>\u2018 in tonight\u2019s episode, the former being a musical guest for the first time in almost 40 years. Yang appeared alongside both in a teaser for the show, where he was slapped by the \u2018Believe\u2019 hitmaker.<\/p>\n\n<p>The soon-to-wrap season premiered on NBC and Peacock back in October, and among the season\u2019s hosts so far have been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/bad-bunny\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bad Bunny<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/sabrina-carpenter\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sabrina Carpenter<\/a>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0who was her own musical guest \u2013 and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/amy-poehler\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Amy Poehler<\/a>, while the other musical guests have included\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/doja-cat\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Doja Cat<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/olivia-dean\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Olivia Dean<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/sombr\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sombr<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Besides <em>SNL<\/em>, Yang is best known for the pop culture podcast <em>Las Culturistas<\/em>, which he hosts alongside his friend and fellow comedian Matt Rogers. He has also made several film appearances.<\/p>\n<p>As well as appearing in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/films\/wicked\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Wicked<\/em> <\/a>and it\u2019s recent sequel, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/films\/wicked\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Wicked: For Good<\/em><\/a>, Yang also starred in romantic comedy <em>The Wedding Banquet<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>In other news,\u00a0<em>Saturday Night Live<\/em> have announced plans to launch a UK edition of the show, which is set to air next year on Sky Max and streaming service NOW.<\/p>\n<p><em>SNL<\/em> creator Lorne Michaels will serve as executive producer on the show, which will follow the same live format as its US counterpart, with a selection of top British comics, celebrities and musicians all taking part.<\/p>\n<p>Each episode traditionally sees an A-list host deliver an opening monologue, before taking part in a selection of different sketches with the show\u2019s regular ensemble cast. The US version of the show helped launch the careers of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/will-ferrell\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Will Ferrell<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/tina-fey\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tina Fey<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/eddie-murphy\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Eddie Murphy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/tv\/bowen-yang-to-leave-snl-cast-after-saturdays-episode-in-shock-exit-3919630\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bowen Yang to leave \u2018SNL\u2019 cast after Saturday\u2019s episode in shock exit<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NME<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bowen Yang is exiting Saturday Night Live after eight seasons on the late-night sketch show. READ MORE:\u00a0\u2018Saturday Night\u2019 review: chaotic, inspiring but where are the laughs? In a shock exit reported by Variety, his last appearance as a cast member will be on tonight\u2019s (Saturday 20) episode, with representatives for both Yang and the show [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-art"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-10-25 17:18:09","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}