Why is kate mckinnon not on snl

In a new interview, two-time Emmy winner Kate McKinnon is opening up her decision to depart Saturday Night Live following an 11-season stint on the late-night sketch series.

“I thought about [leaving] for a very long time, and it was very, very hard,” McKinnon said during Thursday’s episode of Live With Kelly and Ryan. “All I ever wanted to do in my whole life was be on Saturday Night Live. So, I did, I loved it, I had the best decade, and then I was just like, ‘My body was tired,’ and I felt like it was time.”

The comedian was also asked if she’d tune in for the upcoming Season 48. “I don’t know what I’ll do,” she answered. “I don’t know if I can watch the show yet. It’s just too emo because I miss everyone so much. I mean, it’s my other family…. I think I’m just going to tape The Bachelorette and watch that instead.”

McKinnon, along with Aidy Bryant, Pete Davidson and Kyle Mooney, all were rumored to exit SNL in the lead-up to the May 21 finale. She signaled the end of her run with with a final — and ultimately emotional — take on her oft-abducted Mrs. Rafferty character. Davidson, meanwhile, went on to appear one last time at the Weekend Update desk, as did Bryant (as part of the recurring segment “Trendsetters,” opposite Bowen Yang). McKinnon and Bryant then joined Mooney for his sendoff, a five-to-1 commercial sketch for “Grey Adult Pigtails.”

McKinnon — whose myriad impersonations over the years included Justin Bieber, Hillary Clinton, Kellyanne Conway, Ellen DeGeneres, Anthony Fauci, Rudy Giuliani, Laura Ingraham and Elizabeth Warren — recently earned her ninth Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, a category she previously won in 2016 and 2017. It’s her 10th nomination overall, having also been nominated for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics in 2014 for co-writing “(Do It On My) Twin Bed.”

Will you miss Kate McKinnon on Saturday Night Live? 

Kate McKinnon is reflecting further on her decision to depart Saturday Night Live — and her failed goal to make out with each and every one of her colleagues as part of her May 21 sendoff. (We swear that second part will make sense soon.)

In the latest episode of Vulture‘s Good One podcast, the two-time Emmy winner chokes up as she recalls telling series boss Lorne Michaels that she would not be returning for a 12th season.

“Telling Lorne was really hard,” she says. “He knew it was coming. He was very sweet. But he has been a father figure to me, and so much more. It was just really hard — simple human emotions, not wanting to say goodbye to something you love.”

As for her previous statements on Live With Kelly & Ryan, on which she declared that her “body was tired” and it “felt like it was time,” she adds: “Leaving was in the back of my mind for a while, because it’s just a grueling schedule. I mean, I could do it for the rest of my life, happily, if the schedule were not so grueling and if I was not naturally a person who liked to wake up at 8 am and go to bed at midnight.”

Though she could have left at any point after her initial seven-year deal was up, McKinnon says that she chose to stay on SNL in part because of the pandemic and “wanting to wait until it was normal again,” and in part because “I hate change and I hate goodbyes and I love those people.”

McKinnon bade SNL a teary farewell in the Season 47 finale’s cold open, which saw her oft-abducted Mrs. Rafferty character agree to accompany the UFO back to outer space.

Originally, though, she wanted to reprise barfly Sheila Sovage (pictured) for her farewell sketch, “and make out, individually, with every one of my colleagues,” she says. “But due to COVID restrictions and due to [a “Final Encounter”] being such a beautiful idea, we went with that. So I didn’t get to make out with everyone, which is a bother, but maybe one day.”