Andy Samberg On Why He Left ‘SNL’: “Physically And Emotionally, I Was Falling Apart In My Life”

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Andy Samberg knew it was time.

In an interview on Kevin Hart‘s Peacock show, Hart to Heart, Samberg said that he left Saturday Night Live in 2012 to preserve his physical and mental health.

“For me, it was like I can’t actually endure it anymore,” he said. “Physically and emotionally. I was falling apart in my life.”

The intense schedule of SNL was to blame. Long hours to write for the live show while making new digital shorts weekly was too much.

“Physically, it was taking a heavy toll on me, and I got to a place where I hadn’t slept in seven years,” he said. “…It’s basically like four days a week you’re not sleeping, for seven years. I just kind of fell apart physically.”

Samberg joined SNL in 2005. He was part of the comedy trio The Lonely Island, starring in digital shorts like Lazy Sunday and I’m on a Boat that became viral hits. He left the show in 2012.

Samberg noted to Hart that he didn’t “want” to leave. But he felt he had to walk away to “get back to a feeling of mental and physical health,” which was a “very difficult choice.”

“Everyone was like, ‘Oh, same,’” Samberg said. “No one was like, ‘What?’ Everyone was like, ‘Oh, yes, yes. This is just what happens.’ Like, you hit a wall. We’re not built to operate that way.”

The Lonely Island’s Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone leaving the show was also a factor, as Samberg felt he couldn’t continue making digital shorts, particularly songs, without them.

Beginning in 2013, Samberg played Jake Peralta on the sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which ran until 2021.

Two years after he left SNL, Samberg returned as host in 2014.