Saturday Night time Stay followers are speculating that solid member Bowen Yang could also be leaving the present following its season 50 finale.
Yang, 34, appeared bereft whereas he hugged castmate Sarah Sherman in the course of the closing ‘Goodnights’ phase on Saturday, Could 17, as SNL’s stars gathered on stage to shut the season. Yang additionally seemed emotional whereas embracing a number of different solid members earlier than the community feed minimize away for a business mid-segment. (The complete “Goodnights” have been later posted by way of X.)
“If Bowen is leaving I received’t be shocked,” one X consumer wrote, with one other asking, “Um. is bowen additionally leaving?????”
“If Bowen’s really leaving idk really feel,” an SNL fan admitted. “On one hand, I’ll all the time miss him on the present. Alternatively, he’s had probably the most profitable SNL careers of this period and it could be an applicable time if he desires to pursue different issues (everyone knows the way it was with Depraved)”
“It seemed like Bowen was having lengthy heartfelt hugs with everybody so he’s my solely guess to be leaving. Would clarify among the sketches they did for him [tonight],” a viewer theorized.
Yang was featured fairly prominently in Saturday’s SNL season 50 finale, together with in a sequel to the traditional “Bowen’s Straight” sketch the place he romanced visitor host Scarlett Johansson.
Yang instructed Individuals in April that he’d began envisioning what his profession could be like as soon as he left Saturday Night time Stay “in some unspecified time in the future.”
“SNL, it’s simply this shifting, dwelling, respiratory factor,” he mentioned. “Particularly after the fiftieth, I’m seeing what life after the present is like and the way stunning it’s, and the way so many individuals, regardless of how lengthy they have been on the present, are simply with their households and loving their lives and never letting the years take away any of that have for them.”

Bowen Yang attends ‘SNL50: The Homecoming Live performance’ Dia Dipasupil/Getty Photographs
Whereas no exits have been confirmed on air in Saturday’s finale, rumors swirled main as much as the episode that a number of solid members could possibly be leaving the present.
‘Weekend Replace’ co-anchor Michael Che made mild of his personal future on Saturday Night time Stay this previous February throughout a standup comedy efficiency on the College of Rochester, in response to Deadline.
“That is my final season,” he instructed followers. “I’m not coming again, don’t fear. I’m accomplished, it’s over for me. It’s been a lot enjoyable. It’s slightly emotional, it’s bittersweet.”
Heidi Gardner has been a mainstay on the sketch comedy collection since 2017 when she joined as a featured participant. She shortly grew to become a fan favourite and joined the repertory solid in 2019.
The Shrinking star admitted on the “Pleasure” podcast with Craig Ferguson in February that it was turning into harder for her to give you sketch concepts in her eighth season on SNL.
“I’ll say the one factor that I’ve began to really feel slightly bit is simply sketch fatigue, or thought fatigue. At this level, after doing Groundlings and SNL for thus lengthy, I’m like, ‘I’ve written plenty of sketches,’” she acknowledged. “You simply get scared and it does occur some weeks the place I’m like, ‘I shouldn’t have an thought for a sketch, a sport, or a personality.’ After which you understand, fortunately we’ve got wonderful writers on the present that will likely be like, ‘However I’ve an thought for you.’”
Mikey Day joined Saturday Night time Stay as a author in 2013, earlier than turning into a featured participant on air in 2016. He was promoted to the repertory solid in 2018. The comic has parlayed his success on SNL into jobs outdoors the NBC present, together with internet hosting Netflix sport present Is It Cake? and writing on Robotic Hen.
When requested by Deadline in February about staying on the present after season 50, Day replied, “Who is aware of what the long run will carry?”
Ego Nwodim, who was employed forward of SNL’s forty fourth season in 2018, hinted at a possible solid shakeup in an interview with Deadline forward of the fiftieth anniversary particular in February.
“All all through the season, I really feel like we anticipated what the fiftieth was going to be. We didn’t know,” she recalled. “I referred to as it an SNL marriage ceremony, [but a] birthday is clearly extra becoming. It felt like we have been having a marriage, and it was like we’re constructing as much as this marriage ceremony.”
The comic went on, “We had these episodes main as much as the precise fiftieth celebration, however all of the whereas simply figuring out, ‘Okay, we’re working towards this factor, and that’s going to be such an enormous second.’ You may simply really feel it within the air.”
Requested about whether or not she deliberate to bow out after season 50, Nwodim hinted, “We prefer to maintain issues mysterious round right here. That’s a part of the attract of SNL, we don’t know what’s going to occur week to week, not to mention within the fall, so who is aware of.”

Colin Jost, Michael Che and Scarlett Johansson on ‘SNL’ Season 50 Finale Courtesy NBC / Courtesy X
Elsewhere in Saturday’s finale, Johansson bought her long-awaited revenge on husband Colin Jost’s ‘Weekend Replace’ co-anchor Che for jokingly evaluating her personal elements to roast beef in a December 2024 episode.
Jost then sweetly joined his spouse on stage in the course of the “Goodnights” phase to current her with a bouquet of flowers and share a kiss.
Saturday Night time Stay will kick off season 51 on NBC this fall.

