Before the 51st season of Saturday Night Live began airing, Lorne Michaels announced that the show was set to undergo some major changes as cast members were exiting. While some aspects of the cast shakeup were a mistake, it is important to note that some decisions were out of the hands of the legendary sketch comedy show's boss, Lorne Michaels.
To the surprise of many observers, it was revealed that after seven years, Ego Nwodim chose to quit her starring SNL role. After leaving the series, Nwodim chose to collaborate with her former co-star, Heidi Gardner, which seemed to indicate that she didn't leave due to anger. With that in mind, it was fascinating when Nwodim recently explained her SNL departure and commented on the show currently lacking any black female cast members.
Ego Nwodim explained why she left Saturday Night Live
In November 2025, Ego Nwodim made an appearance on Sherri Shepherd's talk show, Sherri. While she was there to discuss the second season of her hit "Thanks Dad" podcast, Nwodim seemed happy to speak about the subject that many observers wanted to know about, her Saturday Night Live exit. When Nwodim was asked how she concluded that the time was right for her to leave SNL after seven seasons, she compared her tenure on the show to a marriage.
"It's like being in a marriage. I've never done it before, but that show was my longest relationship ever… I heard when you're married, you get the seven year itch. And it's like, ‘I wanna date other people. I wanna see some other privates…’ But anyway, I'm like, I wanna explore other opportunities. And so, I started to get the seven year itch."
After making those comments, Nwodim spoke about missing her former co-workers and expressed appreciation for everything she learned while working on the legendary show. Still, she explained that she wanted to leave SNL to make sure she could take other career opportunities.
"It felt like the time to make space for something else for me."
In response to those comments from Nwodim, Sherri Shepherd spoke about understanding what the former SNL star was saying. As the talk show's host pointed out, she went through something very similar when she stopped co-hosting The View after seven years.
Ego Nwodim's take on Saturday Night Live lacking any female black cast members
In 2024, Punkie Johnson left Saturday Night Live, and that was followed by Ego Nwodim's 2025 departure. Following those two exits, SNL currently doesn't have any female black cast members, which is a problem that Leslie Jones recently commented on. During Nwodim's November 2025 appearance on Sherri Shepherd's talk show, she joined the conversation and had fascinating things to say. While speaking to Shepherd, Nwodim expressed excitement about the future of black women on SNL and spoke about being proud of what she brought to the show.
“I felt honored to be the seventh black woman in that cast. I hope that there will be more black women. Punky Johnson came on the show after me. Who knows who else they'll find as they explore and seek out other talents. But I felt honored to represent for us. And I do believe I represented a myriad of characters, different types of characters — some people didn't always catch that nuance, but I do feel like I got the chance to represent and that was really important to me."
Before Nwodim's appearance on Shepherd's talk show, the host had previously urged the team behind SNL to hire more black female performers. To date, the sketch comedy show has only featured 8 black female cast members, Yvonne Hudson, Danitra Vance, Ellen Cleghorne, Maya Rudolph, Sasheer Zamata, Leslie Jones, Nwodim, and Johnson.