Stefon is gone? Bill Hader to exit SNL after eight seasons

A year ago, Saturday Night Live prepared a finale tribute for Kristen Wiig.

What will the show do for Bill Hader this week? Hader has announced he is leaving SNL when his eighth season wraps up this coming Saturday night.

“It was a hard decision, but it has to happen at some point,” Hader told The New York Times. “It got to a point where I said, ‘Maybe it’s just time to go.’”

Hader is SNL’s resident crack-em-up and crack-up in the cast, with a large arsenal of celebrity impersonations and beloved characters such as Stefon.

Hader’s seven-year contract had run out last May but stuck around an additional year. No word yet on whether other SNL long-timers (Fred Armisen, Jason Sudeikis, Kenan Thompson) might also depart over the summer. Armisen already has IFC’s Portlandia ongoing but has managed to maintain double duty. Lorne Michaels convinced Sudeikis to stick around all of this year, despite conventional wisdom.

Head writer and Weekend Update anchor Seth Meyers will stay on, at least through next fall, before leaving to take over the Late Night franchise at 12:35 a.m. Mondays-Fridays beginning February 2014.

So. Expect a busy summer and fall at SNL. And all of 30 Rock.

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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