“Saturday Night Live” will be without one of its main cast members when it goes live from New York tonight.
Bowen Yang will miss this week’s “SNL,” airing Oct. 18, with Sabrina Carpenter pulling double duty as host and musical guest. Yang broke the news himself in an Instagram Story, sharing a photo of a palm tree with the caption, “missing the show tonight but it will be sooooo fun,” adding that Carpenter is “amazing.”
That palm tree is a hint as to why Yang is skipping this week’s episode: He’s in Los Angeles to receive the Vantage Award from the Academy Museum, which hails him as “a trailblazer bringing laughter, heart and representation to the screen.”
Yang’s presence will still be felt in this week’s “SNL,” though, with Variety reporting that Yang’s absence was pre-planned and that he helped write this week’s episode and will appear in a pre-taped sketch.
An “SNL” cast member since 2019, Yang has earned four Emmy nominations for best supporting actor in a comedy series for his work on the NBC sketch show. He’s become one of the show’s breakout stars in recent years, branching out to the big screen with roles like Pfannee in “Wicked,” with the sequel “Wicked: For Good” hitting theaters later this year.
