Saturday evening live bids farewell to Chloé Fineman, who officially announced her departure from the iconic BNC sketch show after seven seasons.
The comedian and actress shared the news with fans in a heartfelt Instagram post on Thursday, revealing that she’s ready to embark on the next chapter of her career.
Its release comes ahead of the series’ 52nd season this fall.
Fineman’s departure marks the latest exit in what has been a period of major upheaval for the long-running late-night series.
Before season 51 last year, Saturday evening live saw a massive upheaval with the departures of veteran actors Heidi Gardner and Ego Nwodim, alongside Devon Walker, Emil Wakim and Michael Longfellow.
Bowen Yang also parted ways with the show during the season.
To help fill the void, SNL brought in five new star players last year: Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane, Ben Marshall, Kam Patterson and Veronika Slowikowska.
Reflecting on his time at Studio 8H, Fineman wrote a moving tribute to his colleagues and the series’ creator, Lorne Michaels.
“After 7 wonderful seasons at SNL I decided it was time to move on to my next chapter,” she wrote.
“It’s cliché to say this, but working at SNL was the greatest privilege of my life. I still can’t believe I got to be a part of it. I fell in love with the place from the second I walked through the door. Lorne (if you’re reading this on your Burner account) I want you to know that I am forever in your debt.”
She then praised the dedication and hard work of the production team behind the scenes.
“Every day I was fortunate to be surrounded by the best people in the business and was constantly amazed to watch them work,” Fineman wrote, noting the high-pressure environment in which team members sewed a JoJo Siwa costume in 10 hours, wrote a cold open on Saturday at 2 p.m., or finished visual effects for a pre-reel minutes before dress rehearsal.
The comedian also laughed about the extreme emotional highs and lows that each writer and performer experiences on the show. “I’m certainly not the first to make this observation, but it’s really funny to think about it now, because at the show we are so invested in everything we work on,” she observed. “You sob uncontrollably when your sketch doesn’t get picked. You storm into a producer’s office telling them they just made the biggest mistake of their lives. You call everyone you know to complain. And then you look back a few years later and it was a sketch called ‘lipstick for thick dogs.’
Fineman explained that this all-consuming intensity is simply part of the show’s unique magic. “But it’s just the show. You respect it so much that you give it absolutely everything you’ve got, even when it’s incredibly stupid. So you’re ecstatic when it works and the most devastated you’ve ever been when it doesn’t work. And in the end, it doesn’t matter that much, but it did in the moment.”
Ultimately, Fineman decided that although moving away was difficult, the time had come for her to move on.
“It’s really hard to leave SNL but it feels like the right time,” she admitted.
“I’m going to miss it a lot. But the people who work there are my family and this place is my home, and I know I’ll never be too far away.”
She signed off the touching message with one last joke for her fans: “And I swear to God, one day in the future they will make lipstick for big dogs.”
Having initially joined the series in 2019 as a featured player, Fineman earned a promotion to the roster two years later.
Over the course of its seven seasons, she became a fan favorite thanks in large part to her incredibly sharp impressions, which ranged from a pitch-perfect Drew Barrymore to an uncanny Timothée Chalamet.
While Saturday evening live fans will definitely miss his presence in live sketches, Fineman already has many exciting projects in the works outside of the late night scene.
His non-SNL acting credits already include roles in Weirdest Fridayas well as voiceover roles in hit animated projects like Big mouth And Despicable Me 4.
Fans can also expect to see her in Prime Video’s upcoming romantic comedy sequel, Red, White and Royal Wedding.
