Insider claims Bowen Yang left SNL due to Heidi Gardner being fired
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Saturday Night Live
Nathanred — 2 months ago(January 10, 2026 10:40 AM)
It's thought that Ego Nwodim left the show at the beginning of the season for the same reason. Bowen Yang stayed on for an extra few months reportedly because Lorne Michaels gave him a lot of money to stay.
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/tv/articles/insider-makes-claims-why-bowen-004406325.html
Apparently, nobody wanted Bowen Yang to wrap up his time on NBC’s long-running sketch show. Per an inside source to Page Six, “everyone” tried to get the actor to stay at SNL, including Lorne Michaels himself. This comes after the creator reportedly “threw a ton of money” at Yang to keep him on board for the first half of Season 51, but the actor was said to be “not happy.” The reasoning behind his choice seems to be twofold, if the unnamed SNL source is to be believed.
The “grueling schedule” is said to be part of the motivation, which tracks with comments from veterans like Conan O’ Brien, who spoke about the “level of anxiety” of working at Saturday Night Live, and Andy Samberg, who opened up about how the work was “physically… taking a heavy toll on me,” and he felt like he “hadn’t slept in seven years.” The SNL insider claimed that “it was too much to do it all” for Bowen Yang when he also took on projects like his Las Culturistas podcast, an upcoming movie that he’s co-writing and co-starring in, and the Wicked films opposite Ariana Grande.
That’s reportedly not the full story, however. The outlet states that Bowen Yang was upset when longtime castmate Heidi Gardner was cut from SNL over the summer. At the time, rumors suggested that her contract hadn’t been renewed after eight seasons at the show, and Gardner was arguably the most shocking of several Saturday Night Live cast exits ahead of Season 51. Not long after the news broke, Bowen Yang praised his former castmate and friend as a writer as well as a cast member, describing her as “clearly so ****ing funny” and a “true anchor on the show” during the COVID lockdown days.