- Bowen Yang's final Saturday Night Live appearance took place on December 20.
- Ariana Grande and Cher were the host and musical guest for the episode.
- Bowen's departure was reported by multiple news outlets on December 19, with him confirming the news himself ahead of his final appearance on the show.
Consider it the end of an era—Bowen Yang took his final bow on Saturday Night Live on December 20, and as expected, it was an emotional send off for the comedian as his eight seasons on the show came to a close.
For the final moment of last night's episode, Bowen was joined by host Ariana Grande and Cher during the Delta lounge skit to sing Charles Brown's sentimental Christmas track, “Please Come Home for Christmas.” Bowen hugged Ari and Cher, and struggled to hold back his tears. And you know what? Saaaaaaame.
And if that wasn't sweet enough, Ari shared the most touching message on her Instagram Story following Bowen's last appearance on the show. “I love you more than words can say and I am just so very proud of you and all the eggnog you've made over the years,” she wrote. “It meant more than words can say to have been there for your send off last night. Happy trails my brilliant and beautiful friend.”
The news of Bowen's departure from the long-standing comedy sketch show came on December 19, with him confirming the news in an emotional tribute post shared to his Instagram ahead of his final episode.
“I loved working at SNL, and most of all I loved the people. I was there at a time when many things in the world started to seem futile, but working at 30 rock taught me the value in showing up anyway when people make it worthwhile,” he captioned his post, which featured several behind the scenes and off-stage moments with his cast and crew members.
He continued, “I’m grateful for every minute of my time there. I learned about myself (bad with wigs). I learned about others (generous, vulnerable, hot). I learned that human error can be nothing but correct. I learned that comedy is mostly logistics and that it will usually fail until it doesn’t, which is the besssst.”
And like the true Ari and Cher stan that he is, Bowen added, “Thank you to Ari for sending me off in the dreamiest way I could imagine.”
While Bowen never explicitly stated why he wanted to leave SNL in his statement, he previously opened up about having desires to fly the nest in a September interview with People.
“I’ve always gone by the instinct of, do I have more to do? And I feel like I do,” he told the magazine after multiple cast members exited after season 50. “Even Lorne [Michaels] and I talked about it, and Lorne was like, ‘You have more to do,’ and that means a lot, because I even confessed to him, I was like, ‘I feel the audience is maybe getting sick of me.’ And he was like, ‘That’s not true. There’s more for you to do. I need you.’”
“I have to honor that. That man has changed my life, and I owe a lot of my life to that show,” Bowen added. “And I love working there, the people are the best. I really love each of them so much.”
