Why Bowen Yang left 'SNL' — despite Lorne Michaels wanting him to stay - video Dailymotion

Watch Why Bowen Yang left 'SNL' — despite Lorne Michaels wanting him to stay - New York Post on Dailymotion

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00:00The crowd went wild for Bowen Yang as he said goodbye to Saturday Night Live after seven

00:13seasons alongside his pal and host Ariana Grande. But Bowen's boss wasn't so happy. Page Six

00:20insiders say the midseason exit was against Lorne Michaels' hopes. Everyone tried to get Bowen to

00:26stay from Lorne down, but he just made up his mind. He was over it. He was not happy, you could tell.

00:34Back in September, we reported that Bowen planned to leave at the beginning of the current season,

00:38but Lorne, quote, threw a ton of money at him. However, another insider said he was given a

00:43standard raise. That moolah only went so far, Bowen actually only signed up through December,

00:49sources say. But everyone all thought he would stay, so why did Bo bounce?

00:55Aside from the NBC show's famously grueling schedule, a source claimed Bowen was over-committed

01:01with work outside of SNL. He hosts the star-studded podcast Las Culturistas with his comedy BFF Matt

01:08Rogers. Their spoofy spinoff, the Las Culturistas Culture Awards, aired in August on Bravo.

01:15Bowen's a busy man. He missed an SNL in October while accepting the Vantage Award at the Academy

01:21Museum of Motion Pictures, and he previously took time off to film the Wicked movies. In fact,

01:27Ariana personally called Lorne to ask that Bowen get the time off, she told Vanity Fair.

01:33Bowen was also reportedly upset over castmate Heidi Gardner being cut after eight seasons.

01:38Season 51 was a bit of a bloodbath. Devin Walker, Emile Joachim, Michael Longfellow were all axed.

01:45Ego Wodum left too, a huge loss for the show. And while there was some chatter that Bowen's final

01:51sketch with Ariana and his dream guest Cher wouldn't air, the mushy moment ended up closing

01:57out the December 20th episode. There wasn't a dry eye in Studio 8H.

02:02I just feel so lucky that I ever got to work here. And I just wanted to enjoy it for a little bit

02:09longer. Especially the people. I've loved every single person who works here because they've done

02:16so much for me, especially my boss. Oh, your boss. There she is.