After five seasons of SNL not really knowing what to do with her, Leslie Jones is moving on and won’t be returning for season 45 next month. During her time on the show, she was nominated for two Emmys and was consistently the best part of Weekend Update, but they never found a way to really integrate her into sketches. Occasionally, we’d get something great, like the Weezer sketch:
But mostly Jones was relegated to yelling from the sides of scene. I can’t say I’m sad to see her leave SNL, she’s always been more interesting than the show let her be. Maybe if they had given her the Weekend Update desk, things would be different. As is, Jones got the exposure of SNL and has used it to boost a film and TV career. She is currently filming Coming 2 America, she’s got a movie lined up with Kristen Bell about women who run a coupon scam, and she has a Netflix special coming in 2020. She will also be executive producing and hosting a revival of Supermarket Sweep, the superior what-does-this-cost game show. (Jones is going to make a great host for that show because she is the right mix of supportive no matter what and totally incredulous that you didn’t know any better.) And this is just the stuff she has going on right now. Freed from the SNL schedule, who knows what else she can add to her resume. Leslie Jones is not going to miss SNL.
