Here's What Long-Running SNL Cast Member Have Said About Leaving The Show

A handful of SNL’s repertory players have been with the show for over six seasons, so we’ve rounded up what they’ve said about their future plans. Although it’s no question that these late night comedians will have a ton of success outside of the show, it’s clear that quite a few of them have no plans to leave anytime soon.

Here’s what these stars had to say about leaving the show…

Kenan Thompson has been a SNL cast member since 2003, joining during the show’s 29th season. Since then, he’s become the longest running player in the ensemble -- and he has no plans to step back anytime soon. Kenan has often said he’s not ready to retire and will stay until they kick him out.

“When my badge stops working, you know what I mean? [When] I don’t have access anymore, that’ll tell you,” he jokingly told Us Weekly. “It’s their environment to employ me at. You know what I mean? So [if] they keep asking then and I’m more than happy to oblige, and as long as the audience continues to laugh when we do something new.”

Colin Jost has been an SNL staff member for almost as long as Keenan but has been appearing on the show as the host of Weekend Update since season 39. He started as a writer back in 2005, eventually becoming one of the show’s co-head writers in 2012. He served in that spot for several years before stepping back -- and then returning again in 2017.

Colin has been hinting that he’s ready to leave SNL for several years, writing in his 2020 memoir, A Very Punchable Face, that he was “ready to sleep semi-regular hours and write without constant swirling pressure of a live show every Saturday night.”

“Working at SNL is a drug — it’s highly addictive, and if I don’t stop soon I think my mind will be wrapped in an irrevocable way. And while whatever I do next will almost certainly be less fun than SNL, it could also be better in some way I never expected,” he wrote.

With Colin’s wife Scarlett Johansson set to host the season finale, fans were wondering if the episode would be his official sendoff -- though it ended with him simply bringing flowers out to her on stage.

Michael Che joined SNL as a writer back in 2013 and the following year, it was announced that he would take over Cecily Strong’s position as a Weekend Update co-anchor for season 40. He’s now been appearing on SNL for 11 seasons but has admitted that he often considers stepping away from the show -- and says he would definitely leave if Colin does.

“My head has been at leaving for the past five seasons,” he told the New York Times in 2022. “I do think that I’ve been here longer than I’ll be here. This show is built for younger voices and, at some point, there’ll be something more exciting to watch at the halfway mark of the show than me and dumb Jost.”

This year, Michael even told an audience at the University of Rochester that it was his final season, although he later posted that fans shouldn’t believe everything they hear at a stand up show, making it unclear where he currently stands.

This year marked Mikey Day’s ninth season on SNL, joining the cast back during season 42 after working as a writer for three seasons. Mikey hasn’t shared much about how long he plans to stay with the show, but he does currently still serve as a writer. When asked about making his return next season, he remained coy.

“Who knows what the future will bring?” Mikey recently told Deadline.

Heidi Gardner joined the cast of SNL in 2017 and has now been a part of the ensemble for 8 seasons. As of now, she has no plans to leave the show, recently sharing that she’s still having an incredible time -- even if she sometimes experiences sketch idea fatigue.

“I love playing characters, so I can’t really imagine a world where I’m gonna get to do this to this degree again,” she shared on Craig Ferguson’s podcast. “I will say the only thing that I’ve started to feel a little bit is just sketch fatigue, or idea fatigue. At this point, after doing Groundlings and SNL for so long, I’m like, ‘I’ve written a lot of sketches.’”

She continued, “It does happen some weeks where I’m like ‘I do not have an idea for a sketch, a game, or a character.’ Luckily we have amazing writers at the show that will be like, ‘But I have an idea for you.’ That’s the only thing that has gotten a little tough.”

Ego Nwodim joined the cast of SNL in 2018 for season 44 and has been going strong for the past seven years. So far, she hasn’t dropped any hints about leaving the show and seems to be energized to keep going for years to come. Ego says that every year when the show goes on a summer hiatus, she’s able to truly reflect on the amazing opportunity she has been given.

“It takes a hiatus and to step back and go, ‘Oh, that’s crazy, what we just did and it’s crazy that I’m a part of it.’ I had some friends come to this last episode and they were so energized and excited and they came backstage after the show. I just did a day at work and they were saying ‘This is amazing. We’re so proud of you. You’re a part of an institution,’” she told Deadline.

She continued, “Then we walked down the hall to leave the building and my friend, he goes to take a picture of the cast headshots and every day I walk past that, and it’s just a wall to me, but it takes leaving the show, going on hiatus or being around your friends who are inspired by this to be reminded of that, because it just becomes work for us at a certain point.”

Bowen Yang has become a fan favorite since joining the cast during season 45 in 2019. He says that the 50th anniversary has made him reflect on his time on the show but he’s not ready to step back just yet -- even if it does have a major impact on his social life.

“[SNL is] this growing, living thing…new people come in and you do have to sort of make way for them to grow and to keep elevating themselves. And that inevitably requires me to sort of hang it up at some point -- but I don’t know what the vision is yet,” Bowen told The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the season finale.

He continued, “The new season of SNL, I’m just like, ‘Oh, right. My time isn’t my own.’ And I tell my friends, ‘I’m not going to really see you guys until June.’ And people that I’ve gone a couple solid dates with I’m like, ‘Hey, it’s not for lack of interest. My time is really slipping away from me and I’m so sorry and it’s not a you thing, it’s a me thing.’”

Chloe Fineman, who also joined SNL during season 45, hasn’t spoken out about her future plans but this season she has had the lowest screentime of any of the repertory players, according to Deadline.

While she has been booked and busy outside of studio 8H, it’s still up in the air as to what she’ll be doing next season.

Lorne Michaels has been at the helm of SNL since the show’s beginning in 1975 but has no plans to make a departure anytime soon. Although he previously said season 50 would be his last, he recently told fans that he doesn't feel like he’s done with the show just yet.

“As long as it’s important and I can be useful, I’ll stay,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s more about keeping it on course than anything else, and, obviously, I really love it. And every year there are more and more people that I rely on for other things, but, in the end, you really need someone to say, ‘This is what we’re doing.’ So, I don’t really have an answer; I just know that this is kind of what I do and as long as I can keep doing it, I’ll keep doing it. There’s no immediate plan.”