Bowen Yang confessed that he never felt “central” to Saturday Night Live, which ultimately led to his shock exit in the middle of Season 51.
Yang, who earned four acting Emmy nominations during his seven seasons in the SNL cast, made his admission during CNN and Variety’s “Actors on Actors” series on Monday with fellow comedian Rachel Sennott, who asked why he decided to leave when he did.
“I never felt like I… was that central to it, to be honest,” Yang said, because “there was like a weird utility to me where I was like, OK, and I’ve accepted this. It’s like I just—I never played like the dad or the straight-man teacher…I was always kind of there, as like, the seasoning,” the openly gay cast member explained.
“I’m like, ‘That’s great. I’m so lucky. I can’t believe I have this job. I can’t believe I have a steady job in comedy. Wow, amazing,’” he added, emphasizing that he appreciated the opportunity nonetheless. “I will cherish it for the rest of my life,” he said, but “I just felt like it was the right time.”
Yang, 35, began at SNL as a writer in 2018 and was added to the cast in 2019. He confirmed reports of his departure after seven seasons on SNL just days before his last episode, making him one of only a handful of SNL alums to leave the show mid-season.
Though Yang has said since his departure that he left the show because it was “time,” Monday’s interview marks his first explanation for exactly why he felt that way.
In January, he said on his Las Culturistas podcast, “This is the thing. This is honestly what’s behind it. It’s like, it’s time,” as cast members typically “would do seven seasons, and then you would scoot.” He added, “I have this very beautiful thing where I get to say that I stayed on exactly as long as I wanted to.”
Besides feeling like a “weird utility” on the show, there were also major changes to the cast after his seventh season. “I feel like I was kind of resolute the season before about leaving,” he said during the interview. “And there was just a lot of uncertainty about what the show would look like after Season 50.”
Longtime cast member Heidi Gardner was axed following eight seasons on the show after the 50th, as were Michael Longfellow and Devon Walker—who had both been on the show for three seasons—and first-seasoner Emil Wakim. After the cuts were made, Ego Nwodim announced that she would be leaving the show of her own volition after seven seasons.
While there was “uncertainty” after the firings, Yang said he still felt like the show was “in a great place without me.”
“I was just looking at the rest of the cast,” he said on Monday. “I was like James Austin Johnson, slay, Andrew Dismukes, slay, Ashley Padilla, slay, Jane Wickline, slay, just like all these people like—great, we’re in great hands.”
It was ultimately Michaels’ direct pitch to stay longer that made Yang hold off on his exit plans for another half-season.
“It was kind of the first time that I felt like in my bones,” he said, “someone who built this thing that like made so many things possible for me and for so many people, being like, ‘I need you,’ and I’m like, ‘I’m not going to turn that down.’”
