Bowen Yang is sharing more information about her decision to officially step away Saturday night live.
“That’s honestly what’s behind it. It’s the timing. Like, you’d do seven seasons and then you’d climb,” Yang, 35, said during the Wednesday, Jan. 7, episode. “The bodybuilders” podcast.. “With COVID and the current media landscape, the entertainment ecosystem today is so turbulent that people have completely valid reasons to stay longer or, in many cases, don’t have the privilege of staying as long as they’d like.”
He added: “I have a really nice thing where I can say I stayed exactly as long as I wanted. Maybe, I’m sure, and I’ve said it before, maybe I wasn’t sure I’d come back in the summer and I’m so glad I did.”
of Yang SNL His career began in 2018 when he was hired as a writer. He joined the cast a year later. On December 19, news broke that Yang was leaving the show after seven seasons.
“I loved working SNLand above all I loved people. I was there at a time when a lot of things in the world started to seem pointless, but working on 30 Rock taught me the value of showing up anyway when people are worth it,” Yang wrote via Instagram on December 20, hours before her final episode aired. “I’m grateful for every minute of my time there. I learned about myself (wrong with wigs). I learned about others (generous, vulnerable, hot). I learned that human error can only be right. I learned that comedy is mostly logistics and that it’s usually going to fail until it doesn’t, which is for the best.”
In addition to thanking the cast mates and writers, Yang gave a shout out to Lorne Michaels to set “the standard” and “to bring everyone together at work. They all care deeply about the people in the room, any room, having fun. I can’t believe I was ever included in that.”
This is the last one SNL the episode was presented by his friend and evil to cost Ariana Grandewith Cher as musical guest. During his Wednesday podcast, Yang reflected on his thoughts and feelings after he left SNL with cohost and BFF Matt Rogers.
Keep scrolling for everything Yang had to say about him SNL exit to “The Bodybuilders:”
His final sketch
Yang could barely hold back her tears throughout his final sketchin which he played a Delta employee finishing his last shift before retirement. As of 12:55 a.m. on December 21, Yang still didn’t know if “this sketch is going to air,” noting that there were “a million reasons” why it could be cut from the live show.
“Nothing is guaranteed,” Yang continued. “I mean, in a nutshell, it’s perfectly illustrative of what this job is about. It resonated all the way through.”
Initially, Yang was worried that the sketch wouldn’t be as emotional as he wanted.
“I was crying with the reading,” she recalled. “In the sketch, I say, ‘I’ve loved everyone here. I’ve loved every single person that works here.’ Like, I immediately broke down because I was telling the truth.”
Cher’s involvement
At first, Yang didn’t know if Cher would be in her final sketch. Finally, he agreed to appear on the morning of the live show.
“She was like, ‘Can I say, like, if you were perfect?’ And she was like, ‘I just want to kiss him,’ or something like that,” Yang said. “Then we had to go and propose to her that… we’d love for her to sing with us at the end.”
The energy of the show
Rogers said he’s glad Yang is “excited” about other things in his career.
“I didn’t know how you were going to feel after it was over. Because it kind of warps you. Like, I can give it now that you’re not there,” Rogers said. “There were times when I would come to the show and you were there, and I was like, ‘What happened to you?’ … The energy could alternately be so high and incredible and the best energy you could ever experience or across the floor to the point where I was like, ‘Why are we doing this?’
The Saturday Night Live stage has hosted icons from Harry Styles to Betty White, and many of its celebrity guests have reached impressive career milestones. “I can’t believe I’m hosting Saturday Night Live. I’m not sure many of you know I’m 88 and a half years old,” White, who (…)
Reflection on ‘SNL’
“This is one of the most meaningful experiences I’ll ever have,” Yang said, noting it SNL taught him “how to work under what seems like immense pressure.”
She also admitted that she experienced “the whole spectrum” of emotions because of the show’s culture.
“Working there is completely deregulating, emotionally. You’re either shooting or you’re, like, completely down in the dumps,” Yang explained. “It’s the time that invades you emotionally, physically, at the level of processes, creatively. It’s all those things that affect you.”
Everyone showed up
Yang was touched by the “outpouring” of love for his latest show.
“Basically everyone who worked there is on the floor. I just looked out and thought, ‘I’m so lucky to have ever worked there,'” she said through tears. “I’m so lucky to be able to make this little statement that’s barely veiled, where I say, ‘I love you all.'”
Working with Ariana Grande
Rogers praised Grande for being “selfless” with Yang’s latest sketch.
“Not every host would say, ‘Yeah, let me give up the last sketch of this, six minutes of this cast member’s time.’ But she did, and she did,” Rogers told listeners. “That’s not just because she’s a good friend, it’s because she’s a really professional host who doesn’t have, like, an ego about her time there, which I think is really cool and worth calling out.”