Taran Killam on His Surprising Exit From Saturday Night Live: "I Was Never Given a Reason Why"

Also not returning for season 42 of the longrunning NBC sketch comedy series are Jay Pharoah and Jon Rudnitsky

By Tierney Bricker Aug 09, 2016 2:43 PMTags
Taran KillamDana Edelson/NBC

Confused as to why Taran Killam is leaving Saturday Night Live? He is, too. 

E! News confirmed on Monday that Killiam would not be returning for season 42 of the NBC sketch comedy series, along with Jay Pharoah, who each were on the show for six seasons. Now, in an interview with Uproxx, Killam is sounding off on why his early departure from SNL surprised him just as much as it surprised fans considering he had another year left on his contract.

"I don't know fully," admitted when asked what happened. "I don't know the other side of it. You sign for seven years, so I had one more year. I had sort of had it in my head I would make this upcoming year my last year, but then heard they weren't going to pick up my contract. I was never given a reason why, really."

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Taran Killam and Jay Pharoah Won't Be Back on Saturday Night Live

While Killam said he "can assume until the cows come home," about why the show didn't pick up his contract, he guessed it probably had to do with his obligations to Why We're Killing Gunther, the movie he's directing starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. "I'll have two months of post-production that would have bled into the SNL production schedule, so we kind of communicated that," he said. 

He continued, "I honestly don't know what happened on the other side, but I do know we had expressed I have work on this film and in bonding this picture, that has to get cleared with SNL. And then [another offer] came up. I wasn't going to have to take any time off to do it, but it was a thing that they would have had to okay."

A cast member since 2010, Killam was known for his impressions of Marco Rubio, Brad Pitt and Matthew McConaughey, among others, and ultimately said he is "so grateful" for his six years on the show. "...My feeling about it is I got my dream job. I set out to be on SNL and I got to do that and I did very well," he said. "And I love and adore and will forever have close ties and tight bonds with the brilliant, smartest, funniest people I've ever met in my life. So, I have no gripes at all. I am so, so, so lucky to have been given the time I've been given.

He later added, "It's always hard and sad to say goodbye, but it feels like an appropriate time and I am so, so grateful to have been a cast member on Saturday Night Live."

So far, SNL has yet to announce any new cast members for season 42. 

(E! and NBC are both part of the NBC Universal family.)

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