“Saturday Night Live” celebrated its landmark 50th season last year, but season 51 will look very different. Several cast changes have taken place, and longtime members of the show have left to pursue other projects.
Heidi Gardner is among the departing cast members, leaving the show after eight seasons. Gardner was a fan favorite for her adaptability to different kinds of sketches and scenarios, and many fans expressed disappointment when it was announced that she wouldn’t be coming back.
One of Gardner’s former castmates recently reacted to her exit from the show, and he had nothing but words of praise for her and the work she did for “Saturday Night Live.”
Bowen Yang Addresses Heidi Gardner’s Departure
During Tuesday’s episode of his “Las Culturistas” podcast with Matt Rogers, SNL cast member Bowen Yang addressed the roster turnover between seasons 50 and 51.
“You are one of the greats. You will go down in history,” Yang said about Gardner, praising her for the work she put in on her eight seasons as a cast member. Yang would join the show as a writer around the same time, but was promoted to a cast member after working behind the scenes for a year.
He and Gardner appeared in several sketches together, building their careers and comedy portfolios in tandem. Yang also praised Gardner for her ability to write and create sketches on her own, at some points even writing material for other cast members.
It’s always a very, very vulnerable thing as a cast member to put only your name on it,” Yang said about being a solo writer at SNL. “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.”
Yang told one story of how Gardner wrote a sketch for former cast member Punkie Johnson, calling it “one of the most beautiful, kindest gestures I’ve ever seen at that show.”
Yang also said that Gardner sent messages to the rest of the cast when they isolated at home during the pandemic to lift their spirits, and noted that he would miss all of the former cast members “very, very much.”
SNL ‘Shake-Up’ Before Season 51
Last week, a source told the New York Post that NBC opted to not renew Gardner’s contract for the upcoming season. She’ll be leaving the show, along with other cast members like Emil Wakim, Michael Longfellow and Devon Walker.
Series creator and showrunner Lorne Michaels said earlier this year that a “significant shake-up” was coming to the show, and that he felt pressure to “reinvent” the long-running series after 50 seasons.
Saturday Night Live – with Yang, Kenan Thompson, Colin Jost and Michael Che, among others – is set to premiere for its new season on October 4th.
