Andy Samberg Reveals He 'Hadn't Slept in Seven Years' Before Leaving 'SNL'
Andy Samberg recently opened up about his grueling time on "Saturday Night Live" during a sit-down with Kevin Hart on Hart’s Peacock talk show, "Hart to Heart." Reflecting on his departure from the show in 2012, Samberg shared the toll that SNL took on him, both physically and emotionally.
"It was a big choice. For me, it was like, I can't actually endure it anymore. But I didn't want to leave," Samberg confessed. "Physically and emotionally, like I was falling apart in my life."
Samberg, who joined SNL in September 2005, spent seven seasons contributing to some of the show’s most iconic sketches. He worked closely with his friends Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, forming the trio known as The Lonely Island, who created memorable pre-taped musical sketches like "Lazy Sunday," "I’m on a Boat," and the Emmy-winning "D--- in a Box."
However, things changed when Schaffer and Taccone left SNL in 2010 to focus on filmmaking. "I was basically left in charge of making the shorts, which I never pretended like I could do without them," Samberg admitted. "We made stuff I'm really proud of in those last two years, but there's something about the songs that I can only do with Akiva and Jorm."
The show’s demanding schedule also played a significant role in Samberg's decision to leave. "I hadn't slept in seven years basically," he said, describing a week filled with non-stop writing, rehearsing, filming, and editing.
He detailed the relentless schedule: writing for the live show all day Tuesday, a table read on Wednesday, writing through Thursday, filming and editing shorts on Friday, and then the live show on Saturday. Eventually, the workload caused him to "kinda fall apart physically."
Talking to other former cast members like Amy Poehler, Samberg realized that life post-SNL could be more manageable. Poehler, who starred on SNL before leading her own sitcom "Parks and Recreation," described the sitcom experience as "pretty chill" compared to SNL's intensity.
Following his SNL tenure, Samberg found success with his own sitcom, "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," where he played a quirky NYPD detective. The show, which originally aired on Fox before moving to NBC, ran for eight seasons and concluded in 2021.
"Saying goodbye was the hardest part by far," Samberg said about the end of "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" during a January 2022 interview with SiriusXM Stars. "I thought I was going to be better prepared for it because I did seven years of ‘SNL’ and left, and I was like ‘OK, I’ve been through the hardest thing I can go through,' but it was in a lot of ways harder because the show doesn't continue on once we stop."