The REAL Reasons These Cast Members Quit SNL

MsMojo

Ever wondered why some of your favorite comedic talents left “Saturday Night Live”? Join us as we dive into the unique, personal, and sometimes surprising stories behind their departures. From career opportunities and creative clashes to personal growth and burnout, these stars each had their own reasons for moving on from SNL. Who do you miss most from the iconic sketch show? Let us know below!

Transcript

00:00Because I loved you on SNL, we all did, it was like a double-edged sword.

00:03Right.

00:04So why was that?

00:05Welcome to Miss Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the former Saturday Night Live players

00:10who quit the show for unique or surprising reasons.

00:13The real reason, as it has not been publicized correctly, was a girl.

00:21Number 10, Punky Johnson.

00:23Everyone approaches their art differently.

00:25Punky Johnson felt like her approach was a little too different from the rest of her cast.

00:28After Ben Silver, a favorite writer of hers, quit the show, Johnson felt like an outcast.

00:34Now hold up now, I'm not going to let y'all corner my baby sister Lisa,

00:37who'd have came all the way from Temecula on my birthday.

00:40I know that's right.

00:41Now, does my sister have terrible listening comprehension skills?

00:45A thousand percent.

00:46She struggled to square her background in comedy with the other's styles.

00:49She cut her teeth at the famed comedy store.

00:52I'm getting my makeup done Saturday for the show, because you know, I got to look good for Norm Michael.

00:56Norm Michael?

00:58Anyway, I see Zoey walk past, and I said,

01:02Hey, don't I know you?

01:04Yes, you did, because she was hosting this show.

01:07That happened that week.

01:10My bad, my bad, Ms. Dajonis.

01:12However, many of her castmates had a more academic background in comedy,

01:16coming up doing more sketch comedy than stand-up.

01:18Johnson says this difference is what ultimately led her to walk away from SNL after four seasons.

01:23You know, I came from stand-up, so I just thought everybody else came from stand-up.

01:27I started having conversations with people, and everybody was like,

01:30Oh yeah, we went to school for this.

01:31I'm like, yeah, I went to school.

01:32Number nine, Tina Fey.

01:33Having served on the writing staff, and at the Weekend Update anchor desk for several years,

01:39Tina Fey didn't stray far from the 30 Rockefeller Plaza.

01:42I want to go to there.

01:43No, we actually mean that.

01:45She went from SNL right into writing, and starring on 30 Rock.

01:49Fey was a rock star on SNL, and an essential ingredient in making one of its greatest eras.

01:53So this Mother's Day, don't give mom that bottle of perfume.

01:57Give her something that says, I'm not a woman anymore.

02:00I'm a mom.

02:02She used that experience and poured it into her next project.

02:05She left it to focus as much of her creative energy on her sitcom as possible.

02:09It paid off.

02:1030 Rock was a critical darling, and an Emmy winner.

02:13People say that Hillary is a b****.

02:16Let me say something about that.

02:18Yeah, she is.

02:20And so am I.

02:21And so is this one.

02:22Yeah, deal with it.

02:23You know what?

02:25F*** you, get stuff done.

02:27Number 8, David Spade.

02:28With a show famous for its cast overhauls,

02:30it must be a weird feeling to be one of the few held over into the next season like a stopgap.

02:35But that's the situation David Spade found himself in at the start of the show's 21st season.

02:40Well, I'm definitely getting some sort of syndrome.

02:44Maybe you're getting cheeseball syndrome from folding all those cheesy sweaters we just got in.

02:49He was retained mostly to establish continuity between the previous cast and the new one,

02:58featuring soon-to-be luminaries Will Ferrell and Sherry O'Terry.

03:02Spade announced his belated departure in 1996.

03:05How strange.

03:06I swear she said buh-bye, yet I still see your mouth flapping.

03:10Yeah, but I...

03:11There it is again, the flapping mouth.

03:13How odd.

03:14I want to see motion, movement, buh-bye.

03:16Bye-bye.

03:17He told TV Guide that constant criticism of the show had gotten to him.

03:21He found it increasingly hard to want to do the work,

03:23especially when he had done all that he wanted to do there.

03:26He earned his own sitcom, Just Shoot Me, the following year.

03:29Maya says congratulations, but it's in a tone that connotes disinterest.

03:34Number seven, Bill Hader.

03:35It may be live from New York, but when you've got career obligations on both coasts,

03:40SNL can become more than a performer can handle.

03:43Hey, we can't make sounds when you talk.

03:45Oh, okay, I see what you're talking about.

03:47Sky Joe!

03:48Bill Hader's tenure was marked by huge successes and iconic characters,

03:52but he also experienced periodic panic attacks and lack of sleep.

03:56He finally made the decision to leave after his eighth season.

04:04Sure, at this time of day, it's going to be jammed.

04:08Are you cross-eyed?

04:09Hader's real reason was also incredibly wholesome.

04:11He and his then-wife, filmmaker Maggie Carey,

04:13had just relocated to Los Angeles for work.

04:16SNL would have taken him away from her and their children for too long.

04:19Oh!

04:21All right, well, maybe just for tonight.

04:24And just for tonight, you can be my valentine.

04:27You mean it?

04:28Yeah.

04:28I guess I got struck by Jupiter's arrow.

04:31L'chaim!

04:32Number six, Will Ferrell.

04:34Given how prolific his movie career would become,

04:36people assume the star of Anchorman and Step Brothers

04:38left Saturday Night Live to answer Hollywood's call.

04:41I'm really, really good.

04:42How good?

04:45I've been called the songbird of my generation

04:47by people who've heard me.

04:50That good.

04:51Outside of some supporting roles and the A Night at the Roxbury movie,

04:55Will Ferrell didn't fully commit to film acting

04:57until he was ready to leave his regular position in the ensemble.

05:00He even humbly admits that Hollywood wasn't exactly banging his door down.

05:04That's easy.

05:06Top of old boot hell.

05:08Just follow the dry creek bed.

05:11But be careful, there's quicksand.

05:13Gus.

05:15Please.

05:15No, peaches.

05:17There was no pile of scripts or offers waiting for him when he made his exit.

05:21He simply thought that it was time to leave.

05:23If there was a time to make the leap from TV to film, the time was now.

05:27It was a gamble that paid off almost immediately.

05:30Wow.

05:31That is a nonsense word.

05:33Judges?

05:34Yes.

05:35Yes, the judges agree.

05:36Fantastic.

05:37I'm so very happy in this moment.

05:40Number five, Leslie Jones.

05:42After a few seasons, some cast members may feel like the show isn't allowing them

05:45to showcase all their talents.

05:47Bigly.

05:49Not gonna happen, Leslie.

05:54Alright.

05:55I mean, I understand.

05:57I understand.

05:57Known for her boisterous personality and distinctive voice,

06:00Leslie Jones parted ways with the series in 2019.

06:03Jones would say of her six-season run on SNL that she didn't feel free there.

06:08Whatever she meant by that, we can only imagine.

06:10She compared the gig to having two jobs at once.

06:12In this job, it does not make it easy to meet men because I'm always working.

06:18It feels like the only men that I interact with is the ones that I work with.

06:22The pace and energy it required were also factors.

06:25After all, Jones was 47 and had nearly 30 years in the business when she was cast.

06:30As she told Sherry Shepard, SNL is a young person's job.

06:33It is a job for younger people, you know.

06:37You go in and, you know, Lauren is smart to get them young and excited and enthusiastic and stuff.

06:45And these are 20, 30-year-olds and they're like, yeah, we'll do anything.

06:48But I came in at 47 like...

06:50Number four, Bobby Moynihan.

06:52Between 2008 and 2017, a lot changed in America.

06:56Cast member Bobby Moynihan spent much of that period watching it unfold on the SNL stage.

07:01You can't even say Merry Christmas anymore.

07:05You gotta say, hey, baby Jesus, you wanna do Pilates?

07:09Viral impressions of Sarah Palin, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton

07:12gave way to skewerings of Donald Trump and Joe Biden.

07:16After the 2016 election, Moynihan noticed that the increasing political content

07:20required a show that could keep up with the onslaught of headlines straight out of the White House.

07:26We hear about this situation in North Africa?

07:28Hello? Yeah.

07:30There's this wizard over there causing all sorts of trouble, Gandolfi.

07:34It made the week leading up to a show more frantic than it was in his early years there.

07:38But he also said that his last year, punishing as it was, was one of his favourites.

07:43Red state, blue state, red state, blue state.

07:45You know what state I'm in? Denial.

07:49Number three, Kate McKinnon.

07:50The writing was on the wall for this breakout cast member for a while.

07:53Interesting. And how would you describe their demeanour?

07:57Shoppers storming a Walmart on Black Friday.

08:02They were all dropping in, scrambling and mash up my cheek meat like it's pizza dough.

08:08Kate McKinnon was one of the show's most dependable and consistently viral performers

08:12for her 10-season tenure.

08:14She left the show in 2022, citing pure exhaustion at doing it for a whole decade.

08:19Now, in a recent study of 100 chickens, all but one could identify himself in a mirror.

08:26So we done got that one.

08:29His name was Dumb Dan and now he's a nugget.

08:33Bon appétit.

08:34Like co-star Aidy Bryant, McKinnon actually planned to leave sooner.

08:37The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and the subsequent industry slowdown

08:42put McKinnon and many of her fellow long-running co-stars on an extended stay with the show.

08:47McKinnon, Bryant, Pete Davidson and Carl Mooney all left the show after its second full in-studio season

08:54since the pandemic began.

08:58Earth, I love you. Thanks for letting me stay a while.

09:05Number 2. Chevy Chase

09:07His presence looms large over the show's history.

09:10But this first season SNL cast member only lasted halfway through his second season.

09:14It will take the president a few days to recover his motor skills fully, citing the period after his last cold

09:20when he tied his shoe to his hair blower and inadvertently pardoned Richard Nixon.

09:24While Chevy Chase's movie career took off after he left, he cites another reason for his departure.

09:29It wasn't backstage tensions that led to his exit.

09:32According to Chase, at least, he left the show for love.

09:35His girlfriend was living in Los Angeles and gave him an ultimatum.

09:38But there was a girl who lived in Los Angeles who I was infatuated with and wanted to marry.

09:44And she wouldn't move to New York.

09:48She wasn't living in New York and she'd leave him if he didn't join her.

09:52Chase left the show, he went after her, they got married, then divorced relatively quickly.

09:56And he says it was the wrong choice.

09:58And you actually married the woman, is that right?

10:00Yes, I did.

10:01And it lasted about nine months.

10:03And she threw a hot iron at me and various other things.

10:08And it was really the wrong choice.

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10:24Number 1. Melissa Villaseñor

10:28The pace of the SNL workweek should be studied.

10:31Some repertory players find that it catches up with them sooner or later.

10:35Or do you need more?

10:37No, I got it.

10:39Ain't it hard for keeping it so hardcore?

10:43Sometimes, yeah.

10:44Stand-up comedian and impressionist Melissa Villaseñor lent her talents to the show for six seasons

10:50before announcing her exit in 2022.

10:52Her reasons were understandable and kind of heartbreaking.

10:56She was experiencing intense panic attacks and mental health crisis

10:59that, at a certain point, just made such a high-pressure spot untenable.

11:04What do you mean, never made it?

11:06I, I, I never made it as a wise man.

11:11I couldn't cut it as a poor man still.

11:15Villaseñor was quick to point out that it's not the show's fault.

11:19She simply couldn't keep up with the show and take care of herself at the same time.

11:24Working nine to five

11:26What a way to make a living

11:28Barely getting by

11:31It's all taken and no giving

11:33Who's your favourite SNL cast member?

11:35Tell us in the comments.

11:36Aww, bye-bye!

11:39Say bye!

11:41Bye-bye!

11:42Do the bye-bye!

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