Bowen Yang Breaks Silence After Leaving SNL Season 51

Well, that happened: Bowen Yang is leaving SNL in the middle of Season 51. After eight seasons at 30 Rock, he signed off with a big final moment and an even bigger goodbye note.

A mid-season exit, capped with a duet

Yang wrapped his run on the December 20, 2025 episode, closing things out with a duet alongside that night’s host (and his Wicked co-star), Ariana Grande. Mid-season departures at SNL aren’t common, so this one definitely stands out.

His goodbye, in his own words

After the show, Yang posted a long, thoughtful message on Instagram. He talked about how much the people at SNL meant to him and how just showing up matters, especially when the world feels pointless. He also kept it very Bowen: he joked that he’s terrible with wigs, praised his colleagues as generous, vulnerable, and yes, hot, and said he learned to embrace human error. His big takeaway on the job? Comedy is basically logistics, and it fails a lot until it suddenly doesn’t.

"The show doesn't go on because it's ready, but sh--, I hope I am."

He thanked the cast and crew on both sides of the camera, and gave Grande a special shout-out for helping send him off in the dreamiest way he could imagine.

Hollywood showed up in the comments

Plenty of familiar names dropped in to show love and support: Jason Momoa, Walton Goggins, Pedro Pascal, Brittany Snow, and Simu Liu were among those who chimed in.

Where this leaves his SNL legacy

• Joined SNL as a writer in 2018 (Season 44), then moved to the featured cast in Season 45
• Spent eight seasons on the show overall
• Picked up five Primetime Emmy nominations for his work there
• Outside SNL, he appears in the Wicked movies and stars in Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens
• He's 35

It’s a big swing to step off the SNL treadmill in the middle of a season, but if Yang’s goodbye is any indication, he’s walking out with clarity, a sense of humor about the messiness of live TV, and a fanbase more than ready to follow him to whatever’s next.