Saturday Night Live has been on the air for over 50 years, with Season 52 currently airing as part of the 2026 TV Schedule. The variety show has become a pseudo-college experience for its comedic cast, helping to launch the careers of decades of iconic comedians like John Belushi, Eddie Murphy, Tina Fey and, more recently, Kate McKinnon. As with most college experiences, leaving can be hard, and that’s true for most cast members of SNL, especially Amy Poehler.
Unlike college, though, there’s no set time on how long a comedian can stay on SNL. Some stars get fired for various reasons; others choose to leave because they’re ready to work on bigger projects, and some choose to stay as long as they can, like Kenan Thompson, who is currently the longest-running cast member in the history of the show. For Poehler, the choice to leave SNL was a touch more personal and definitely more bittersweet. In a recent sit-down with WSJ Magazine, Poehler opened up about how she knew the time was right to leave amid Season 34, saying:
I was pregnant, and I had to have that baby. But then I came back after I had the baby. And then they were like, ‘You got to get out of here. You got to go take care of your baby.’ And I was like, ‘But I want to stay with you guys.’ And they were like, ‘Nope, you have to leave.’ It’s very hard to figure out when it’s time to go ‘cause it’s such a dream job. But I was ready to go, to have a regular night’s sleep.
Poehler appeared in a few episodes at the start of the 34th Season, anchoring Weekend Update with Seth Meyers and occasionally playing Hilary Clinton opposite Tina Fey’s impression of Sarah Palin. She was absent from the Halloween show in 2008 because she had just given birth to her son, which Meyers announced to viewers as he anchored Update by himself. The Parks and Rec star returned for a string of December shows before announcing her departure from the show and the WU desk.
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Saturday Night Live isn’t a show one stays away from if they loved their time there, though, and Poehler has been back several times despite becoming a bigger household name thanks to her Parks and Recreation role and, now, her popular podcast, Good Hang. While the comedian is very much still missed on the show, the notion of her being able to step away from it on her own terms to raise her kid is comforting.
And, though Poehler hasn’t been a full-time cast member in over two decades, her influence can still be felt on the show both on the Update desk and in the show’s regular sketches. The Baby Mama star also still finds ways to chop it up with both past and present stars on the long-running sketch comedy series. Most recently, she welcomed current SNL star Marcello Hernández on her podcast.
While there’s no word on whether Poehler will make an appearance or serve as a host for an upcoming SNL episode, it’s possible, especially considering her new show, Dig, is set to premiere on Peacock on November 23rd. So hosting the previously mentioned show would be a great way to promote it and soak in the vibes of her former workplace nearly two decades after her departure.
For now, fans can revisit Amy Poehler’s iconic Saturday Night Live tenure by streaming episodes with an active Peacock subscription.
