Another Saturday Night Live star is bidding the show farewell. After spending two seasons as a featured player, Molly Kearney is exiting SNL.
The comedian took to Instagram on Friday morning to announce the news of their departure, posting a series of behind-the-scenes photos from the show over the years, along with a lengthy, heartfelt tribute in the caption.
“That’s a wrap on my time on SNL!” Kearney wrote. “Reflecting on the amazing 2 seasons I got on this show, it was such a dream come true. So incredibly grateful for this period in my life. So much love to all my big hearted buddies behind the scenes who make the magic happen every week. So many bald caps, so little time.”
They went on to thank the “talented writers” and cast, specifically shouting out their “day 1 crew” Marcello Hernández, Devon Walker, and Michael Longfellow, whom they made their SNL debut with. “Head up and heart out!” Kearney added. “Harold forever!!!!!”
Kearney will clearly be missed. Within minutes of their Instagram post, Marcello Hernández, Bowen Yang, Heidi Gardner, James Austin Johnson, Ego Nwodim, Sarah Sherman, Chloe Fineman, and Michael Longfellow had all responded with messages of love.
Kearney first boarded SNL in 2022 for Season 48; they are the show’s first openly nonbinary cast member. Outside of their memorable “Weekend Update” sketches, Kearney also starred in Prime Video’s comedy A League of Their Own and appeared in the Disney+ series The Mighty Ducks.
The announcement of Kearney’s departure comes just one day after Punkie Johnson confirmed that she would not be returning next season. She posted an Instagram video further elaborating on her decision on Thursday, writing, “SNL I LOVE YOU… LOOKING FORWARD TO WHAT’S NEXT!!! PUNKIE OUT!!!!”
With the exception of the Please Don’t Destroy guys, Kearney had the least amount of screen time in Season 49 with less than 25 minutes overall (which is almost half of what they saw in Season 48). Johnson, a repertory member, had the next least amount of screen time of the entire cast at 37:13. (Featured player Michael Longfellow squeaked just ahead of Johnson with 39:17.)
SNL Season 50 premieres September 28 on NBC.
“Another Saturday Night Live star is bidding the show farewell.”
Another “star”???
Neither Punkie Johnson or Molly Kearney were SNL “stars”