Saturday Night Live is resuming this Saturday on the 2026 TV schedule following the Winter Olympics, meaning there are plenty of sketches and laughs to look forward to. Fans can also look forward to the return of the Season 51 cast, which is down one member since the Christmas episode following Bowen Yang’s departure. The first few episodes of the year in January felt weird without him, but after Kenan Thompson included him in a picture of his SNL family, I’m in my feels.
The cast photo for Season 51 was released, with everyone gathered on the main stage at Studio 8H, including Yang, who is right in the middle. Thompson shared the photo to his Instagram page, and had nothing but love for his Season 51 SNL fam, and it’s making me miss Yang more and more:
It’s definitely bittersweet seeing Yang in the cast photo, which was more than likely taken at the start of the season. Yang’s departure in the Christmas show came as a surprise, and it was announced only days before, so it didn’t give viewers much time to prepare themselves. Of course, he will always be part of the SNL family, like every other alum from the series, but it is still emotional having him be part of the Season 51 cast photo, even though he wasn’t present for the entire season.
Yang’s exit from SNL has not been easy. In January, he had to pick up the last of his things at 30 Rock, and he even described having to sneak around the place so he wouldn’t cause a distraction. Now, as SNL continues its season without him, he’s opened up about how much he misses the show and how fun it would have been to do sketches with some of the latest hosts, such as Teyana Taylor and Alexander Skarsgård. SNL alums are known for making surprise cameos, so it might be time for that to happen for Yang, even though it’s barely been two months since he said goodbye.
Meanwhile, Yang has been making waves with his podcast since his SNL exit. He and friend and fellow comedian Matt Rogers have hosted their Las Culturistas podcast for a long time, even before Yang landed on SNL, and they’ve been getting quite a lot of big-name guests, such as Jennifer Lawrence, Tina Fey, and Chappell Roan, over the last couple of years. Even so, Yang is still a supporter of late-night, now more than ever, after The Late Show’s cancellation.
I am missing Yang on SNL so much, but luckily, with all episodes of the series streaming with a Peacock subscription, there are plenty of moments of his to watch. It can be assumed that he still hangs out with his SNL family from time to time, but hopefully, he’ll do it on-screen in the near future.
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