Leading until the 51st season of the premiere of "Saturday Night Live" on October 4, 2025, the show-show Lorn Michaels teased "shaking" a late-night sketch show (through Again). Once I did well that promise by an axle Role members like Devon Walkerthe Norm McDonald-ESK Michael Longfelland a single season A prominent player Emil VakimOne of the biggest changes has come to the word that the longtime member of the cast Heidi Gardner will not return to the SNL.

Vulture He was the first to report on Heidi Gardner's departure from SNL. As for reasoning, it is unclear whether Gardner was not asked or whether she chose to leave the show after eight seasons. However, we bet it is second, especially since Gardner appears in various other projects in recent years.

While enjoying his time on SNL, Gardner landed a key support role of the Apple TV+series Adam Sandler's Basketball Drama "Quick". She also behaved as one of the judges in the HBO Max Max "Second Chance Phase" in 2024, so there was no lack of opportunities outside the SNL, and leaving the series would give her much more time to monitor other projects.

At SNL, sometimes acting members hit five seasons, along with an increase, their chances of leaving the series - usually because their profile is rising outside the show. Gardner is a longtime favorite of fans, and she probably reached the point where she achieved everything she could on the show, and it's time to move on.

Let's look at some of Gardner's best bits from SNL over the years.

One of Gardner's most famous moments at SNL happened not long ago, when the sketch became viral because of her character in breaking and had a problem controlling laughter in the middle of a sketch. At the moment she faced colleagues, Mothers Day Day and host Ryan Gosling, made up to look like live versions by acting on the animated knuckleheads known as Beavis and Butt-Head:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86qkGK0asgo

Once the sketch came out of the rails, Gardner initially felt bad about breaking the sketchBut as soon as she realized that she would not be in trouble for the funny wrong step, she enjoyed the reactions and directing the viral reputation of the sketch. It will surely go down as one of her best moments in the show.

Gardner was also not alien to creating original SNL characters, especially those who appeared at the weekend update Bureau. For our interests, we certainly cannot help, but we do not remember the teenage film critic Bailey Giser:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRMDXU6W21G

Also, on the side of the movie -related things, we will be missed if we haven't mentioned an angel, a girlfriend of every boxer from every boxing movie so far. This edition even managed to bring Starvala "Creed" franchise Michael B. Jordandan For an extra layer of fun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9oeekqqn6ri

The comedian was not shy to dig into a physical comedy when needed, confirmed by this sketch where he was looking forward to the challenge with a burger in a restaurant at an inappropriate time, resulting in a lot of food on his face:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_joenrsbths

These are just a few highlights that stand out, but Garder is the main foundation of "SNL" for a long time, it can easily fit into any kind of role in the show. She was supposed to play a straight face when someone else took him in the spotlight, and there were many wild, original characters who revived them over the years.

Gardner's departure leaves a big gap in the SNL list and it will be interesting to see how Lorn Michaels manages to make up for his absence.