“I don't want to believe that it's totally bizarre to me, but it's obviously an adjustment,” the comedian told PEOPLE while talking about his Ritz Super Bowl ad
Rosalind O'Connor/NBC via Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- Bowen Yang told PEOPLE about how his life looks different since exiting Saturday Night Live in December
- While he explained positives to the career shift, the comedian explained that there are elements of the sketch show that he misses
- One of his latest projects is starring in Ritz’s 2026 Super Bowl commercial alongside Jon Hamm and Scarlett Johansson
Saturdays look different now for Bowen Yang.
The seven-season Saturday Night Live cast member concluded his time on the series on Dec. 20, 2025. But, what did the comedian do with his first Saturday night out of 30 Rock?
“I was in Japan but I was watching,” Yang admitted to PEOPLE while talking about his spot in Ritz’s Super Bowl 2026 commercial. “I was getting texts from old coworkers, just saying hi and that the train was still running and a mutual missing of each other.”
Having this career change has shaken up the 35-year-old’s life but he said the shift is “bizarre, but ultimately fun.”
“I don't want to believe that it's totally bizarre to me, but it's obviously an adjustment,” he explained, adding that it “feels very strange” to go from a cast member to viewer.
“To not know what the process is from soup to nuts with the whole week is alleviating. The emotional baggage of it has been lifted for me. So just watching the sketches every week these past three shows have been great,” Yang said.
Of course, there are plenty of elements that he misses, including some of the recent hosts and musical guests.
“Now I'm getting [feelings] like, ‘Oh, it would've been fun to do a sketch with Teyana Taylor or Alexander Skarsgård,” said Yang, whose final episode starred his friend and fellow Wicked star Ariana Grande as the host and Cher as the musical guest.
“Now all my friends of course are like, ‘God, I wish you were still working there. I really want to come see Connor Storrie!’” he joked of the Heated Rivalry actor who is hosting on Feb. 28. “I'm not the plug anymore."
Yang joined SNL in 2019, becoming the series' first Chinese American cast member and one of the show’s first openly gay stars.
SNL went through a cast shakeup following its 50th season. Devon Walker, Emil Wakim, Michael Longfellow, Heidi Gardner and Ego Nwodim all announced their exits, and the television series added newbies Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane, Ben Marshall, Kam Patterson and Veronika Slowikowska for the 51st season.
That group joined returning cast members Ashley Padilla, Jane Wickline, Michael Che, Mikey Day, Andrew Dismukes, Chloe Fineman, Marcello Hernández, James Austin Johnson, Colin Jost, Sarah Sherman and Kenan Thompson.
RITZ
Yang still has an exciting weekend TV appearance after his SNL exit with Ritz’s Big Game commercial, airing Sunday, Feb. 8. The 30-second spot features Scarlett Johansson and Jon Hamm as partygoers on Ritz Island.
Johansson and Hamm both hosted respective episodes of Saturday Night Live in spring 2025, which helped the trio to quickly gel with each other on the Ritz set, Yang told PEOPLE.
“It was remarkably lovely and easy with people that I already worked with,” Yang said. “I looked around, I was flanked by two of the hardest working people in show business.”
Read the full article here