Andy Samberg reveals why he quietly left Saturday Night Live 12 years later. The comedian became an online star during the early days of YouTube after posting videos with his comedy music group, The Lonely Island. He was cast in the NBC sketch comedy series along with his group members, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, in 2005. The trio popularized the SNL Digital Short, a new series of shorts, often in the style of music videos. Their SNL Digital Shorts are credited with ushering SNL into the digital age. After seven seasons, Samberg left the comedy series in 2012, last hosting an episode in 2014.

Now, in a new interview with Kevin Hart on Hart to Heart (via Entertainment Weekly), Samberg explained why he left Saturday Night Live. He detailed the grueling writing schedule that SNL entails and how he made the difficult decision to prioritize his health over the show. Read why he decided to exit Saturday Night Live below:

“It was a big choice. For me, it was like, I can’t actually endure it anymore. But I didn’t want to leave… Physically and emotionally, like I was falling apart in my life… I was basically left in charge of making the shorts, which I never pretended like I could do without them… We made stuff I’m really proud of in those last two years, but there’s something about the songs that I can only do with Akiva and Jorm. It’s just how it is, we’re just a band in that way…

Physically, it was taking a heavy toll on me and I got to a place where I was like I hadn’t slept in seven years basically… We were writing stuff for the live show Tuesday night, all night, the table read Wednesday, then being told now come up with a digital short, so write all Thursday [and] Thursday night, don’t sleep, get up, shoot Friday, edit all night Friday night and into Saturday, so it’s basically like four days a week you’re not sleeping, for seven years. So I just kinda fell apart physically…

I had talked to Poehler and other people that had already gone. I was like, once I go, when I have an idea, I can’t just do it… The craziest thing about working there is once you get going, if you’re just in the shower and you have an idea that s— can be on television in three days, which is the most like intoxicating feeling… They told me straight up, ‘We prefer you would stay,’ and I was like, oh, that makes it harder… But I just was like, I think to get back to a feeling of like mental and physical health, I have to do it. So I did it and it was a very difficult choice.”

Samberg’s Impact on SNL Explained

What The Actor Has Been Up To Since He Left The Series

Samberg, along with his lifelong best friends Taccone and Schaffer, are credited with breathing new life into SNL. His videos brought a spotlight back onto the series with the viral musical pre-tape sketches, “Lazy Sunday,” “I’m on a Boat,” and the Emmy award-winning “D*ck in a Box.” However, when Taccone and Schaffer’s contracts were up, they decided to leave the show, while Sandberg stayed. As the comedian explains, it became increasingly difficult to pick up the slack of his former co-stars from their absence, and it took an emotional and physical toll on his health.

Samberg’s statements about SNL‘s demanding work schedule have been echoed by many of his fellow former cast members. Various SNL alums have come forward with similar stories of being overworked and exhausted. Due to the show’s weekly, live format, working around the clock is not uncommon. Former members of the comedy sketch series have addressed similar concerns. Despite his struggles, Sandberg continued to make a mark on SNL.

Samberg has had one of the most successful careers of any SNL alum, becoming a movie and TV star. He led the cast of the Golden Globe-winning Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which ran from 2013 to 2022 on Fox. The show had such a strong fan following that Fox renewed the comedy for two more seasons after being canceled in 2018. Sandberg has lent his voice to the animated franchises Hotel Transylvania and Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers. He tried out a rom-com with Palm Springs, which broke Sundance Film Festival records.

He’s also dipped his toes in hosting, first with the Emmys, and now with the Peacock series Baking It with fellow SNL alum Maya Rudolph. While leaving SNL was a difficult decision, it was clearly the right choice, as it opened many doors for Sandberg to have a successful and long-lasting career in Hollywood.

Source: Hart to Heart (via Entertainment Weekly)