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As Saturday Night Live prepares its return to the 2026 TV schedule in the fall, the cast is still talking about last season and Bowen Yang's exit. Understandably so, as he had an emotional impact on the cast, and apparently it resulted in Sarah Sherman catching some strays from a writer about her jokes landing in his absence.
Yang, Sherman, and SNL's longest-tenured cast member, Kenan Thompson, all talked about the exit during a recent interview with Variety. After talking about what they'd miss with Yang no longer there every week, Sherman shared that a writer pointed out her table reads may suffer now that he's gone. She said:
Literally, one of the writers said to me, ‘When Bowen’s gone, no one is gonna laugh at anything you do at table.’ To this person’s credit, I would come out in a scene and be like, ‘Your waters,' and he would be like, ‘Girrrrrl!’ Dying. Anything I said!
Sarah Sherman's talked about Bowen Yang hyping up her projects, and it sounds like he did the same thing at Saturday Night Live. Kind of vicious for a writer to call her out like that, but her example showed maybe Yang was laying things on a bit thick when they'd be reading for sketches.
Yang quickly chimed in and confirmed he's a big supporter of Sarah Sherman, saying she's the "funniest woman." Kenan Thompson chased that with pointing to his appreciation of those types of friendships between SNL castmembers, and how it adds to the fun of the show:
It’s nice to see that. It’s also nice to see everyone’s nuanced sense of humor, because we’ll all laugh really hard at individual things, random ass things, and that’s always really fun. To be like, ‘Oh, look, that one really got Bowen,’ or, ‘That one really got Tommy.’
Sometimes the best part of a sketch is watching a Saturday Night Live cast member break, so I think it's all the more imperative that the cast likes each other and has the comfort to do so. With the immense pressure that comes along with being on the show, those moments wouldn't happen if there wasn't a vibe backstage saying that it's ok to laugh.
Bowen Yang's SNL exit was somewhat oddly timed, happening midseason rather than following a season finale. Yang has since revealed that he stayed on an additional season at the request of Lorne Michaels, who wanted him to serve as a mentor to the new wave of cast members coming in. While Yang previously felt like he never felt central to the series in any way, hearing Michaels wanted him on as that role convinced him to stay on a little longer.
Saturday Night Live continues to thrive without Yang, who is off to pursue various projects. Who knows, he may even end up hosting the show one day, should any of his future movies and shows warrant that level of promotion. Given how often he's in the news, I have to think that moment is coming sooner rather than later.
I know I'll be keeping an eye out for what's next for Bowen Yang, and ready for Saturday Night Live's return to NBC this fall. For now he remains busy with his podcast Las Culturistas, which just aired a comedy award show on Bravo and streaming with a Peacock subscription.
