Posted in: Current News, NBC, TV | Tagged: saturday night live, snl

SNL Cast, Ariana Grande, Cher Honor Bowen Yang on His Final Night

Here's the Saturday Night Live cast, Ariana Grande, Cher, and more honoring Bowen Yang during his final SNL sketch and the "good-nights."

Earlier today, NBC's Saturday Night Live star Bowen Yang confirmed that tonight's year-end show, with host Ariana Grande and musical guest Cher, would be his last as an SNL cast member. Heading into tonight's show, we looked back at the sketch that sold us on Yang's comedy greatness. Now, we're getting a look at Yang's goodbye from his final show. We got a sense early on that tonight would be an emotional one based on the audience's reaction when Yang came out to join Grande during her monologue. But it was Yang's final sketch that really hit the heartstrings, joining Grande and Cher in the musical sketch "Delta Lounge," where cast members were able to say their respective goodbyes. It's an incredibly heartbreaking rendition of "Please Come Home for Christmas (Bells Will Be Ringing)," and Yang was definitely feeling the emotions of the moment.

"I just feel so lucky that I ever got to work here," Yang shared during his final sketch. "This is my last shift. It's sad, I'm going to miss everything about this place, the way it smells, the celebrities that come through. Just last week, Josh O'Connor was here," Yang continued, making it clear he was addressing his time on SNL. Sharing that his time was both "great" and "rotten," and that "a lot of it got cut," Yang said, "I just feel so lucky that I ever got to work here, and I just wanted to enjoy it a little bit longer. It's definitely the people, I've loved every single person that works here because they've done so much for me, especially my boss" (this time, it was Cher and not Lorne Michaels).

Here's a look at Grande's monologue and Yang's final sketch, "Delta Lounge":

First joining SNL as a writer in 2018, Yang would become a featured player during Season 45 and a full cast member with Season 47. Though not exactly the norm, Yang joins SNL alums Cecily Strong, Molly Shannon, Dana Carvey, Eddie Murphy, and others when it comes to exiting the long-running sketch comedy and music series early. Here's a look at Yang's post from earlier today, confirming his exit. Following that, we have the complete text of his message, where he rolls out a number of people to thank:

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.

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.

thank you to every single person who showed up there: friends and coworkers and audiences and hosts. thank you celeste, sudi, will, alison, julio, fran, drez, bulla, marty, john, ben, jimmy, ceara, deetch, jake, asha, jack, auguste, tucker, kent, streeter, james, alex, jasmine, gary, and billy for writing with me. thank you to every cast member for making me laugh and cry. to liz and don. tom, jodi, louie, eamon. gena, chris, eddie. the crews, the pages. and to audrey, jameson, cassandra and chris for the fastest, funnest quick-changes in all of showbiz. thank you to ari for sending me off in the dreamiest way i could imagine.

thank you to lorne for the job. for the standard. and for bringing everyone at work together. they all care deeply about people in the room, any room, enjoying themselves. i can't believe i was ever included in that.

the show doesn't go on because it's ready, but shiiiiit, i hope i am. ❤️🌃⌛️🎥

The Season 51 cast includes Michael Che, Mikey Day, Andrew Dismukes, Chloe Fineman, Marcello Hernandez, James Austin Johnson, Colin Jost, Sarah Sherman, Kenan Thompson, and Bowen Yang, along with current featured players Ashley Padilla and Jane Wickline. Joining them are newcomers Ben Marshall, Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane, Kam Patterson, and Veronika Slowikowska.

New writers for this season include actor-writer Jack Bensinger (Rap World), stand-up comedian Jo Sunday (Just for Laughs), comic Maddie Wiener (The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon), actor and writer Rachel Pegram (Harley Quinn), writer-comedian Claire McFadden (Second City), Maxwell Gay (The Harvard Lampoon), and Tucker Flodman (The Harvard Lampoon). NBC's Saturday Night Live premiered on Oct. 11, 1975, and broadcasts live from NBC's famed Studio 8H in New York City's Rockefeller Center. The program is a production of Broadway Video in association with SNL Studios. Lorne Michaels is the executive producer.

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