Bowen Yang Says One SNL Host Made "Multiple Cast Members Cry"

Yang wouldn't reveal who the worst host he's ever seen was.

By Russ Burlingame

Saturday Night Live is an institution, and for many actors and comedians, being invited to host the show is a career highlight. According to SNL writer and performer Bowen Yang, though, there are some who are less excited to be working with the team to 30 Rockefeller Center than others, and in the case of one recent host, he was so brutal with his criticism that he left "multiple" cast members in tears. The issue came up on a "Truth or Kink" sketch on Watch What Happens Live! with Andy Cohen, and Yang resisted the urge to identify the host in question.

From context, it seems as though Cohen and/or fellow guest Matt Rogers know who Yang is talking about, but nobody's interested in nuking his career to "out" a bad host.

"Well, this host made multiple cast members cry on Wednesday before the table read because he hated the ideas," Yang said.

One has to assume it was a little more than just disliking the sketches themselves, and that the host in question probably made that hate known in a fairly dramatic way.

Yang joined the cast in 2018, suggesting that the host in question was there sometime in the last few years. That rules out a number of notoriously-awful hosts like action star Steven Seagal. ("He didn't want to go along with what the plan was that week," longtime cast member David Spade revealed in Live From New York: The Complete, Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live. "As a result, I think that was the first week that I heard talk about replacing the host and just doing a cast show.")

Of course, social media has already got to work speculating on who it might be, with popular candidates including Bill Burr, David Chappelle, and Elon Musk -- all of whom had controversial appearances as host in the last few years. Of course, there's no guarantee that somebody behaving badly behind the scenes is also going to be somebody who the audience assumes.

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The Saturday Night Live Season 49 company includes Michael Che, Mikey Day, Andrew Dismukes, Chloe Fineman, Heidi Gardner, Marcello Hernandez, James Austin Johnson, Punkie Johnson, Colin Jost, Molly Kearney, Michael Longfellow, Ego Nwodim, Sarah Sherman, Kenan Thompson, Chloe Troast, Devon Walker, and Bowen Yang. 

Saturday Night Live is executive produced by Lorne Michaels, with Liz Patrick directing and Darrell Hammond announcing. 

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