Bowen Yang is “Saturday Night Live”‘s biggest breakout star in years.
But after six seasons on the NBC show — playing everything from the Titanic’s iceberg to baby hippo Moo Deng — and a successful movie career, Yang was ready to leave, multiple sources told The Post.
By the time the curtain came down on the show’s 50th season on May 17, “Bowen was telling friends that it was his time,” said one well-placed industry insider. “He wanted to move on and was even planning to spend time in Japan…
“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.”
Lorne Michaels, however, had other plans.
“He talked to Lorne and [NBC] threw a ton of money at him” (to stay), the insider said of Yang, who is the only individual cast member up for an Emmy Sunday, for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.
We have reached out to reps for “SNL” and Yang.
While many expected Michaels, 80, to retire at the end of the show’s 50th season this past spring, insiders say he’s in no hurry to go anywhere — and that his dramatic cast moves ahead of the 51st season premiere on October 4 reveal his desire to stay relevant.
Keeping Yang — who co-starred in NBC Universal’s hit movie “Wicked” and will appear in November’s sequel, “For Good” — happy and at 30 Rock was key.
But so was freshening up the place.
Players Devon Walker, Emil Wakim, Michael Longfellow and, in a shock move, longtime star Heidi Gardner were all reportedly shown the door.
On Friday, it was also announced that Ego Nwodim, who was won the show for seven years and is close with Gardner, is leaving despite her name having been included on Monday’s list of returning cast members. Insiders told The Post it was her own decision.
“The hardest part of a great party is knowing when to say goodnight. But after seven unforgettable seasons, I have decided to leave ‘SNL,” Nwodim, 37, wrote on Instagram.
“It breaks my heart,” said James Miller, who penned the book, “Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live”. “Ego’s been special since Day One. It’s a real loss, but the history of ‘SNL’ is built around the fact that it can survive any departure.”
The Post first revealed that it was not Gardener’s decision to leave after eight seasons, although she had admitted to feeling a bit of “sketch fatigue”.
“You are one of the greats. You will go down in history,” Yang said of the actress on “Las Culturistas,” his podcast with Matt Rogers, this week.
“I will miss the people who are not coming back very, very much,” he added.
“In a rebuilding year, you need people who can carry sketches and do a multitude of things,” said a source who has worked closely with the show. “Losing Bowen would have been very, very tough.
“No one is indispensable, but in this case it would have been devastating — particularly as Lorne does not have the unlimited budget he used to have.”
Michaels, though, is said to still be sharp as a tack. “SNL” already won seven Creative Arts Emmys this year, and at least one expert believes it can pull off an upset and beat HBO’s “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” in the Outstanding Scripted Variety Series Sunday.
And, as seen by Yang’s decision to stay, Michaels can still be extremely persuasive.
“Most of Lorne’s life is spent having people ask him for favors and asking him to do something,” said the show source. “When he goes to the unusual place of asking someone for something, it’s a very, very big deal, and as a result it’s extremely hard to say no to him.
“Not just because he’s Lorne, but he because he was vital to making you, he picked you, put you on the show, he picks your sketches every week … there are literally 50 years of people — apart from Chevy Chase — who are incredibly grateful to this man.”
(In 2018, Chase, one of the show’s original cast members, said of modern-day “SNL”: “I had to watch a little of it, and I just couldn’t f–king believe it. That means a whole generation of s–theads laughs at the worst f–king humor in the world.”)
As for the popular belief that Michaels would step away soon, at least one insider isn’t surprised that it didn’t happen.
“I don’t think anybody will replace him until he’s physically unable to do it — and I think we have a long time ’till then as he takes very good care of himself,” biographer Susan Morrison, who wrote “Lorne: The Man Who invented Saturday Night Live,” told The Post.
“The show is his life’s work, and his life, he loves it, he’s married to the show and I can’t see him going to leave it to retire.”
Sources said that, if wanted, late-night host and former cast member Seth Meyers is potentially waiting in the wings to take over.
But, Morrison pointed out, “As Lorne says, ‘There are no heirs apparent in show business.’”
The 50th season, which was celebrated with a huge concert at Radio City Music Hall and a live show, “seemed to be really exhausting” and “back breaking” for Michaels, Morrison admitted.
It was also the only time the cast just did a live show without a dress rehearsal.
“My prediction is that when he needs to he will scale his day-to-day involvement back,” Morrison said, revealing he’s already delegated some of his duties to staffers . “There are two points in the week where he is indispensable. His super power comes out after the read-through on Wednesday … and then on Saturday night, when he is lightning fast, and reorders the sketches and cuts and adds in that hour between dress rehearsal and the live show.”
She sees a world in which Michaels’s involvement comes down to those days.
“They could carry on and he could come in a few hours on Wednesday and Saturday and it would still be his show … his taste would still be dictating the key decisions,” Morrison added. “I could see him scaling his office hours back radically, but still have his hands on the reins.
“Lorne has this line: ‘You know when people leave show business? Never. No one ever leaves show business.’”
The new featured players joining Season 51 are Veronika Slowikowska, Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane and Kam Patterson.
Asked why there is only one new woman, the show source said with bemusement: “Some things change and some things never do.”
But, Morrison said, Michaels has big plans for the returning women.
“We talked a lot about something that people might not be so aware of, which is that he likes the show to have an element of sweetness, the way Gilda [Radner] did.”
Jane Wickline, Morrison said, has that quality: “Lorne has a special fondness for her because she reminds him of Gilda. There is nothing brassy or showbiz about her.”
Chloe Fineman, meanwhile, is “valued” for her “prodigious ability to do impressions.”
As always, though, each week will be a competition to see who actually gets solid air time.
The show’s “manic quality is built in,” Morrison said. “Every week there are only so many minutes of airtime … there can be almost a ‘Game of Thrones’ aspect to how the week unfolds, and who is left standing by Saturday night.
“That’s probably what gives the show its adrenaline. Lorne would say this is what makes is work.”
