Bowen Yang praised his ‘Saturday Night Live’ co-star and collaborator Heidi Gardner after her exit from the late-night sketch show. Speaking on his Las Culturistas podcast, Yang said of Gardner, “You are one of the greats. You will go down in history.”
Gardner is one of several cast members not returning for Season 51. The show is losing Gardner, Devon Walker, Michael Longfellow, Emil Wakim, and John Higgins while gaining five new cast members.
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“I am thrilled to go back,” Yang acknowledged. “I will miss the people who are not coming back very, very much.” He added, “Shout out Devon, Emil, Michael Longfellow. They were fantastic comedians going in. They are fantastic comedians coming out. Those are some A+ gems.”
He singled out Gardner as a cast member who was trusted to write sketches solo. “It’s always a very, very vulnerable thing as a cast member to put only your name on it,” Yang said. “But anytime you saw just ‘Gardner,’ you knew you were in good hands. She would take it upon herself to write pieces for other cast.”
He recalled a “Weekend Update” segment Gardner penned for former cast member Punkie Johnson. “It was one of the most beautiful, kindest gestures I’ve ever seen at that show, and her heart was so big, and clearly so fucking funny,” Yang said. “A true anchor on that show.”
Yang also credited Gardner with helping to get the cast through the Covid pandemic. “[She was] one of the first people who was just like, ‘Okay, just to get through this, let’s just each wake up, no rush, there’s no time limit — let’s just each text each other every day, something that made us smile today,’” Yang recalled. “And that was this foothold that I had emotionally in terms of knowing we were just sharing music.” He called his former co-star “a truly beautiful person.”
Earlier this week, after a string of departures, Saturday Night Live confirmed its Season 51 cast, with Yang, Kenan Thompson, and Weekend Update co-hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che among those set to return. According to multiple reports, much of last year’s main cast will be back at Studio 8H this fall, including Ego Nwodim, Chloe Fineman, Marcello Hernandez, Andrew Dismukes, Sarah Sherman, and James Austin Johnson (who, of course, handles the show’s all-important Donald Trump impression).
The biggest exit this year was Gardner, who enjoyed a very successful eight-year run on the show. During season 49, she participated in more sketches than any other cast member, and she was the longest-tenured female cast member during Season 50. Gardner has yet to address her departure from the show.
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