Bowen Yang explains why he left SNL in just 2 words

on Wednesday episode of his podcast “Las Culturistas,” who co-hosts with his friend, comedian Matt Rogers, the “Wicked” actor spoke candidly about his surprising exit from the long-running sketch show after seven seasons.

“Honestly, here’s the thing behind this: It’s time,” Yang said a little over five minutes into the episode. “You’d do seven seasons and then slip away.”

Frazer Harrison via Getty Images

Yang continued, “COVID and the current media landscape, the current entertainment ecosystem, is so turbulent that people have completely valid reasons to stay longer. Or, in many cases, they don’t have the privilege to stay as long as they would like. I have a very beautiful thing where I can say I stayed exactly as long as I wanted to.”

But he almost left the show before, he revealed.

“Maybe I wasn’t sure about coming back in the summer, and I’m really glad I did,” Yang said, referencing his unorthodox decision to leave midway through Season 51.

In his final episode, Bowen said goodbye to the show in a meta sketch with Cher and Ariana Grande. In the sketch, Yang played an airport employee on his last shift, and it was a much more heartfelt and bittersweet sketch than what is typically aired on the show.

NBC via Getty Images

Yang said on his podcast that the sketch was initially supposed to be much crazier, with Yang’s eggnog machine spraying people.

Yang credited creator Lorne Michaels for the more tender tone. Yang recalled that Michaels approached her before the show and said, “I think it’s better if it’s just you guys and play with the emotion.”

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