Goodbye from New York?
The “Saturday Night Live” Season 50 finale came to an abrupt end on May 17, leaving audiences speculating who from the cast may be leaving the show for good.
Host Scarlett Johansson closed out the show with a traditional goodbye alongside the rest of the cast. However, the NBC variety show then quickly cut to a commercial for “Suits L.A.” The program ended at 1:02 a.m., two minutes past the normal ending time on the East Coast.
The snafu led to audiences speculating who from the cast is leaving the show for good. After all, many stars tend to exit Studio 8H for the last time following a series finale.
“Lorne Michaels, wherever you are,” Johansson said onstage. “You’re not gonna want me to single you out, but congratulations. You are a singular man.”
Bowen Yang, for his part, emotionally hugged castmate Sarah Sherman during the closing. “If Bowen is leaving I won’t be shocked,” one viewer wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Another person wrote: “It looked like Bowen was having long heartfelt hugs with everyone so he’s my only guess to be leaving. Would explain some of the sketches they did for him [tonight].”
In April, Yang blatantly told People that he would leave the show “at some point.”
“SNL, it’s just this moving, living, breathing thing,” he said. “Especially after the 50th, I’m seeing what life after the show is like and how beautiful it is, and how so many people, no matter how long they were at the show, are just with their families and loving their lives and not letting the years take away any of that experience for them.”
Mikey Day and Heidi Gardner also appeared sentimental and gave multiple hugs to the cast and crew.
It’s still unclear if Johansson’s latest hosting gig was husband Colin Jost and Michael Che’s last time behind the “Weekend Update” desk, too. Fans have speculated that the pair will take the monumental 50th season as the opportunity to officially retire.
In February, Che even proclaimed “I’m not coming back, don’t worry,” during a stand-up show at the University of Rochester.
In one notable moment, the “Jurassic Park Rebirth” actress, 40, joined Che, 41, and Jost, 42, for their “Weekend Update” segment during the NBC variety show.
“Before I tell another joke, I wanna take this opportunity to apologize to someone I hurt, Scarlett, can you come out here?” Che asked. “Y’know, last time we did joke-swap, I made Colin do some tasteless jokes comparing your vagina to Costco roast beef.”
“The fact is I was just lashing out because I’m jealous,” he joked. “I’ve never even seen a human vagina. And notice I said ‘human,’ because I once spent the summer on a farm. You feel me?”
Che then went in for a high-five, which Johansson declined.
“And, Colin, I’m sorry too. Because I owe you everything,” Jost forced Che to say. “When Colin discovered me, I was selling crack outside the Bronx Zoo. And now look at me, selling crack outside the American Girl doll store.”
In Dec. 2024, Johansson made a cameo backstage while Che and Jost did their annual joke swap. The actress was given a heads up that Che would make a jab about her, but she didn’t know how vulgar it really would be.
At the time, Che made Jost read off the teleprompter: “Costco has removed the roast beef sandwich from its menu. But I ain’t trippin’. I’ve been eating roast beef every night since my wife had the kid.”
Jost and Johansson, who married in 2020, are parents of son Cosmo, 3. She also shares daughter Rose, 10, with ex-husband Romain Dauriac.
“I feel like it’s almost my responsibility to come up with some way to burn Michael back,” Johansson told Vanity Fair in a profile just days earlier. “Retaliation, I’d say, should be expected. Others on the show could support this desire. Know what I mean?”
In March, she told InStyle: “I just can’t believe that they went there. I was like — it was so gross. It was really gross,” she went on. “And, like, old-school gross.”
Johansson’s episode also featured Mike Myers and Bad Bunny as the musical guest.
Johansson made history on Saturday night, hosting the show for the seventh time. This made her the female star to have hosted “SNL” the most times, beating out Tina Fey and Drew Barrymore.
She previously hosted in January 2006, April 2007, November 2010, May 2015, March 2017 and December 2019. She’s made cameos throughout the historic show, including doing multiple sketches for its three-hour 50th anniversary special, which aired on Feb. 16.
Alec Baldwin, meanwhile, leads the most times for a male star hosting with a whopping 17 episodes.
