Major ‘Saturday Night Live’ Star to Exit in the Middle of Season 51, Report Claims

This weekend’s Saturday Night Live will apparently be the last episode for one major player.

Variety reports that Saturday’s episode, hosted by Wicked: For Good star Ariana Grande, will be the last for Bowen Yang.

After joining as a writer in 2018 for Season 44, Yang became a featured player the following season and joined the main cast with Season 47. As the first-ever Chinese-American cast member, Yang quickly became a fan-favorite on the show and has had some memorable characters, especially when it came to some Weekend Update bits or even his portrayal of Vice President JD Vance. His exit comes on the heels of an exodus that happened prior to Season 51 that saw Ego Nwodim, Heidi Gardner, Michael Longfellow, Devon Walker, and Emil Wakim exiting.

Even though Saturday’s episode only marks the midseason finale for Season 51, it’s not uncommon for a cast member to leave in the middle of the season. Most recently, Cecily Strong bowed out of SNL in 2022 during Season 48. Molly Shannon, Dana Carvey, and Eddie Murphy are also among those who have left SNL before the season was over, just to name a few.

Meanwhile, even though news of Yang’s departure is disappointing, it’s not surprising. Over the years, he’s really made a name for himself. In 2021, he became the first SNL featured player to be nominated for an Emmy Award in the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series category, and he has been doing a lot more projects outside of SNL. Most notably, he can recently be seen as Pfanee in Wicked and Wicked: For Good, and will be lending his voice to the upcoming The Cat in the Hat film. He also starred in the rom-com The Wedding Bouquet, which was released in April after debuting at Sundance in January.

Aside from acting, Yang has been hosting the podcast Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers since 2016, and since 2022, the two have been hosting the live parody award show Las Culturistas Culture Awards. It makes sense that Yang would want to branch out beyond Saturday Night Live, and what better episode to be his last than one hosted by his friend and Wicked co-star, which also has musical guest, Cher?

Bowen Yang’s final episode of Saturday Night Live will reportedly be on Saturday. All episodes of SNL are streaming on Peacock, so fans can always get their Yang fix that way after this weekend.