Cecily Strong Says Goodbye To ‘Saturday Night Live’ After 11 Seasons

Saturday Night Live favorite Cecily Strong said a surprise goodbye to the show during the Dec. 17 episode.

Strong announced her departure when she appeared as her popular crazy lady character, Cathy Anne, in the Weekend Update segment.

“I’m a little emo tonight, because I’m here to say goodbye,” she revealed. When Michael Che asked why she was leaving, Strong replied in her signature hilarious fashion, “turns out, prison.”

She added, “You had enough of me” and claimed to have “friends on the inside” anyway.

A photo of the “friends” in question showed former SNL stars Kate McKinnon and Aidy Bryant in orange suits.

“Everybody has to go to jail at some point, and it’s just my time now,” Strong quipped. “But I feel really lucky that I got to spend so many of the best moments of my life with these people that I love so much.”

The SNL star wrote in a statement that her “heart is bursting.”

“The first actual work day I tried to be very cool and make it look like I knew what I was doing and I was supposed to be there,” she recalled. “I left that night around 11 after saying goodbye to everyone. I got stuck wandering around the building because none of the elevators went to the first floor and I was trying so hard to avoid having to go back upstairs to ask for help because I’d already said goodbye!!!”

Strong continued, “I think I went to every floor trying to figure out if there was another exit I was missing. I might have even gone into a stairwell. I ended up going back upstairs and my soon-to-be great friend Colin Jost helped me out and walked me over to the secret nighttime elevator. It felt as impossible to leave that night as it does now. And my great friend Colin Jost ended up helping me again, this time by getting Elvis to sing me off (thank you Austin Butler you absolute kind and generous dreamboat).”

Butler, who starred in this year’s biopic Elvis and hosted Saturday’s episode, sent Strong off with a bittersweet cover of Elvis Presley‘s “Blue Christmas.”

The comedian also acknowledged the sudden nature of her announcement. “I’m sorry I’ve been a little quiet about it publicly,” she wrote. “I didn’t want the extra pressure on something already so emotional for me. And I’m so grateful I got to have these wonderful past six shows to help me ease into it and get to meet and laugh and probably overly hug [new cast members] Molly, Marcello, Devon, and Michael who I think are not only brilliantly funny but really great humans.”

“I am ready to go, but I’ll always know home is here. I’ve had the time of my life working with the greatest people on earth,” she concluded.

Strong rocked 11 seasons of SNL and now, fans can look forward to her starring in Season 2 of AppleTV+’s Schmigadoon. A release date has not yet been announced.