That Austin Butler episode—actually the only Christmas episode not hosted by a former cast member since 2018!—also served as a mid-season farewell to longtime cast member Cecily Strong. I’m sure these types of things aren’t actually planned out particularly far in advance;

Bowen Yang is saying goodbye to “Saturday Night Live.” Yang will exit the show in the middle of his eighth season following the Dec. 20 episode — featuring his “Wicked” franchise co-star Ariana Grande as host and Cher as musical guest —TODAY.com has learned.

“Saturday Night Live” fans “Believe” Cher was lip-syncing on the show this weekend. The 79-year-old pop icon was the musical guest on the sketch comedy program’s final episode of the year on Saturday, taking the stage to sing “DJ Play a Christmas Song” and “Run Run Rudolph.”

Bryant was there to help given Bowen Yang a send-off, bringing back their classic Trend Forecasters characters on Weekend Update.

"SNL employs some of the most talented production staff in all of live television and they resort to generative AI for an image of an old person at a casino??"