Why is Heidi Gardner leaving 'Saturday Night Live' after 8 years? Cast shakeup explored

Heidi Gardner, the comedian and actress, was a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live for eight seasons. According to USA Today, she is exiting the show ahead of its 51st season.

As per reports, her exit happens amid a broader shake-up ahead of SNL’s 51st season. According to Entertainment Weekly, the show is refreshing its roster, as key cast members and writers are bowing out. The shake-up isn’t unusual for the show, but it's particularly significant coming right after its 50th-anniversary arc.

Gardner joined Saturday Night Live in September 2017, at the start of Season 43.

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Heidi Gardner is leaving SNL after 8 seasons.

More on why Heidi Gardner is leaving SNL

So far, cast members, including Devon Walker, Michael Longfellow, and Emil Wakim, and among the writers of the show, Rosebud Baker and Celeste Yim, are all leaving the SNL show.

Earlier this year, Gardner had appeared on Craig Ferguson's podcast Joy, where she hinted at leaving SNL and cited ''sketch fatigue'' as the reason behind her leaving the show. She said:

''I will say the only thing that I’ve started to feel a little bit is just sketch fatigue, or idea fatigue. At this point, after doing Groundlings and SNL for so long, I’m like, ‘I’ve written a lot of sketches.''

During the conversations on the podcast, she had also admitted that her job had become a ''little tough.'' On the SNL show, Gardner was known for both her recurring characters and her knack for playing quirky roles.

Some of her best-known characters include Bailey Gismert, who is an angsty teen film critic who appeared on Weekend Update; Angel, Every Boxer’s Girlfriend From Every Movie About Boxing Ever; Goop Staffer, in which Gardner played a panicked staffer; and a YouTube beauty influencer parody, where she played the role of eccentric online personalities.

Devon Walker, who joined as a featured player in Season 48, also announced his exit via Instagram in a series of posts. He wrote in one of the pictures he shared online:

''Me and the show did three years together, and sometimes it was really cool. Sometimes it was toxic as hell. But we … made the most of what it was, even amidst all of the dysfunction. We made a f–ked up lil family.''

The shake-up is a planned reset after SNL’s 50th anniversary, with Lorne Michaels, the creator of the show, refreshing the cast and writers to bring in new voices and energy.

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