Bowen Yang is exiting Saturday Night Live after eight seasons on the late-night sketch show.
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In a shock exit reported by Variety, his last appearance as a cast member will be on tonight’s (Saturday 20) episode, with representatives for both Yang and the show so far declining to comment on the move.
Yang first joined as a writer in 2018 for Season 44, later joining the main cast in Season 47, and his time on the show has earned him repeated nominations for the supporting comedy actor Emmy category.
His exit follows a major exodus that preceded the 51st season, with Ego Nwodim, Heidi Gardner, Michael Longfellow, Devon Walker, Emil Wakim, and John Higgins all recently departing the show.
Cher and Ariana Grande are among the stars rounding off the year for ‘SNL‘ in tonight’s episode, the former being a musical guest for the first time in almost 40 years. Yang appeared alongside both in a teaser for the show, where he was slapped by the ‘Believe’ hitmaker.
The soon-to-wrap season premiered on NBC and Peacock back in October, and among the season’s hosts so far have been Bad Bunny, Sabrina Carpenter – who was her own musical guest – and Amy Poehler, while the other musical guests have included Doja Cat, Olivia Dean and Sombr.
Besides SNL, Yang is best known for the pop culture podcast Las Culturistas, which he hosts alongside his friend and fellow comedian Matt Rogers. He has also made several film appearances.
As well as appearing in Wicked and it’s recent sequel, Wicked: For Good, Yang also starred in romantic comedy The Wedding Banquet.
In other news, Saturday Night Live have announced plans to launch a UK edition of the show, which is set to air next year on Sky Max and streaming service NOW.
SNL creator Lorne Michaels will serve as executive producer on the show, which will follow the same live format as its US counterpart, with a selection of top British comics, celebrities and musicians all taking part.
Each episode traditionally sees an A-list host deliver an opening monologue, before taking part in a selection of different sketches with the show’s regular ensemble cast. The US version of the show helped launch the careers of Will Ferrell, Tina Fey and Eddie Murphy.
The post Bowen Yang to leave ‘SNL’ cast after Saturday’s episode in shock exit appeared first on NME.
