‘SNL’ Star Colin Jost Admits He ‘Misses’ Leslie Jones After Her Departure From the Show

Colin Jost and Leslie Jones had a close relationship on Saturday Night Live, with Jones often joking about how attractive she found him in her “Weekend Update” segments. That is all gone now that Jones has left to work on other projects, and Jost remembered their work together in an emotional Instagram post hours before this weekend’s episode. In the post, Jost said he does not know if he could have survived his first year on the show.

“I never really post anything on social media because I’m self-conscious/repressed about it, but I really wanted to say an SNL goodbye to Leslie Jones, and I mostly wanted to say thank you,” Jost wrote alongside a gallery of photos from their time together on the show. “I don’t know if I would have survived my first year on Update without Leslie. I was extremely nervous and awkward and she was extremely confident and funny and knew who she was. And she made me (and our whole show) a lot better.”

“Even though she has wanted to hit me in the face many times (as shown in pic #3), she has also been kind and generous and given me many birthday presents (all photos of her),” Jost continued. “And more than anything else, she’s been funny. Chris Rock knew that when he recommended her to Lorne six years ago and now all of America knows it.”

In the end, Jost said he will miss Jones and hopes she comes back soon.

“I miss you Leslie and I hope you come back on Update anytime you want, you… scrumptious, chocolate… nope it doesn’t work the other way,” he joked.

Early last month, Jones confirmed she would be leaving SNL, sharing a message broken into five tweets.

“Yes it’s true I am leaving Saturday Night Live. I cannot thank NBC, the producers, writers, and amazing crew enough for making SNL my second home these last five years,” Jones tweeted.

In one tweet, she made a joke about Jost, calling him a “porcelain-skinned Ken doll.”

Jones joined SNL in 2014 and earned Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy in 2017 and 2018. This year, she was nominated for Outstanding Original Music and lyrics for the sketch “The Upper East Side” with Eli Brueggemann and Bryan J. Rucker. She is expected to be seen in Coming 2 America, the 2020 sequel to the Eddie Murphy classic Coming to America. Deadline reported that she will host a Supermarket Sweep revival being shopped to multiple networks.

Jones was not the only familiar face missing from last weekend’s Season 45 premiere. Pete Davidson is still part of the cast, but he missed the premiere because of his work on James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad.

SNL creator Lorne Michaels replaced Jones with two new cast members, Bowen Yang and Chloe Fineman. Michaels hired a third comedian, Shane Gillis, but he was fired after his racist jokes resurfaced.

New episodes of SNL start at 11:30 p.m. on NBC Saturdays. Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Taylor Swift are this weekend’s guests.