GOSSIP & RUMORS: Bowen Yang abruptly leaving ‘SNL’ after 7 seasons: ‘Out of the blue’

Bowen Yang is done at “Saturday Night Live,” The Post has confirmed.

The 35-year-old comedian, who joined the Lorne Michaels-created show for Season 45 in 2019, will be departing the long-running program after Saturday night’s Christmas episode. Yang’s “Wicked” co-star, Ariana Grande, is hosting his final show alongside musical guest Cher.

“It’s his choice. People have no idea what is really going on,” an insider told The Post on Friday. “This has come out of the blue, but is no surprise.”

The Post has reached out to “SNL” and Yang’s reps for further comment.

Yang’s abrupt and surprising departure comes just months after a handful of other popular cast members, including Heidi Gardner and Ego Nwodim, exited the NBC show ahead of Season 51’s premiere on Oct. 4.

Although the “Fire Island” star reportedly wanted to leave “SNL” after Season 50, insiders revealed that Michaels, 81, and the network convinced him to stay.

“Bowen was telling friends that it was his time. He wanted to move on and was even planning to spend time in Japan,” a source told The Post in September.

“People on the show told him to take the summer to think it over, but it looked like he was leaving and everyone was just waiting for the announcement,” the insider added. “He talked to Lorne and [NBC] threw a ton of money at him.”

Yang himself teased his eventual “SNL” exit during an interview with People back in April.

At the time, the funnyman described “SNL” as “this growing, living thing where new people come in and you do have to sort of make way for them and to grow and to keep elevating themselves.”

“That inevitably requires me to sort of hang it up at some point,” he told the outlet, “but I don’t know what the vision is yet.”

But Yang worried “SNL” fans more recently when he missed the episode that aired on Oct. 18 and saw Sabrina Carpenter serve as both the night’s host and musical guest.

It was later revealed that Yang was absent because he was being honored with the Vantage Award — which honors an emerging artist who challenges traditional narratives in film and TV — at the 2025 Academy Museum Gala in Los Angeles.

Before his shocking “SNL” exit, Yang was already busy with projects like “Wicked,” its newly released sequel “Wicked: For Good” and his “Las Culturistas” podcast with co-host Matt Rogers.

Grande, during an appearance on Yang’s podcast last year, revealed that she wanted him to play Pfannee in “Wicked” so much that she reached out to Michaels to make it happen despite the comedian’s grueling “SNL” schedule.

“I was so, so over the moon excited that you were going to be able to do it — I called Lorne!” the “7 Rings” pop star said in November 2024. “I knew that it was a huge, massive ask — and also probably an impossible one.”

“You made it work,” she added. “You exhausted yourself and worked yourself to the bone.”

As for his seven-year “SNL” stint, Yang left his mark with some viral — as well as some not-so-well-received — sketches.

One of his best moments came on “Weekend Update” as the Iceberg from the Titanic, where he somehow turned a historic disaster into a hilariously petty character with opinions about modern culture.

Yang made headlines again playing George Santos and gleefully leaning into the disgraced congressman’s endless fabrications and over-the-top persona in a run of political sketches.

But not every character landed quite as smoothly, and the “Wedding Banquet” star’s take on the Thai hippopotamus Moo Deng split viewers.