Saturday Night Live is a truly legendary show, one that is known for creating and commenting on pop culture. The series, which is streaming with a Peacock subscription, went through a ton of casting shakeups ahead of Season 51. And the twists keep on coming, as Bowen Yang is reportedly leaving after this week's episode with Ariana Grande and Cher.
This news comes to us from Variety, which reports that despite being in the cast of SNL 51, Yang is suddenly departing from the series after this week. The specific reason for this sudden casting change is unclear, with reps from Bowen Yang and Saturday Night Live refusing to comment at the time of writing this story. But the fact that he's leaving in the middle of the season will definitely turn heads, and inspire some fans to say "I don't think so, honey!"
This news is definitely a shock, as Bowen Yang is a fan favorite member of the cast who first joined Saturday Night Live back in 2018. After serving as a writer for a year he joined as a featured cast member in Season 45, before becoming a main cast member in Season 47. His work has been rather acclaimed, including earning four Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, and one for Writing for a Variety Series.
During his time on Saturday Night Live he became one of the most memorable performers and writers in recent memory. He brought together many iconic sketches during this time, including playing Titanic's ice berg, as well as the recurring "Bowen is Straight" video shorts. Yang also made history as the first Chinese-American star of the show.
While Bowen Yang isn't the first SNL cast member to leave mid-season, it's typically not the way folks leave the long-running sketch comedy series. And since he's so popular thanks to his work on and off the show, smart money says this news will quickly go viral.
While Saturday Night Live helped make Bowen Yang a household name, he's stayed busy with a number of big projects outside of the show. He hosts the wildly popular podcast Las Culturistas alongside Matt Rogers, which televised its own awards show earlier this year. He also had a notable role in the Wicked movies, as well as films like Fire Island and The Wedding Banquet.
Throughout the podcast, Yang has consistently spoken highly of his time on SNL, and successfully "climbing cringe mountain" when playing wild characters during sketches.
Bowen Yang's exit from Saturday Night Live comes month after a ton of cast shakeups, which saw the departure of Ego Nwodim, as well as Heidi Gardner, Michael Longfellow, Devon Walker, and Emil Wakim.
Yang will reportedly have his last episode on the show this Saturday, which is hosted by Ariana Grande and featured Cher as the musical guest. The episode will air 11:30PM as part of the 2025 TV schedule.
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