Andy Samberg Explains Why He Left ‘SNL’ — Even Though The Show Wanted Him To Stay

Plenty of “Saturday Night Live ” alums have spoken publicly about the grueling nature of working on the variety show. But it sounds like Andy Samberg may have had an even more demanding work schedule than most — especially in his last two seasons.

In the latest episode of Kevin Hart’s Peacock interview series, “Hart to Hart ,” Samberg described the “intoxicating” feeling of working on the show and how it eventually took a toll on him.

“Physically and emotionally, like, I was falling apart in my life,” Samberg confessed.

Samberg — along with his longtime friends and Lonely Island collaborators, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone — breathed new life into the show in 2005 when they were hired to create digital shorts. The trio even helped put YouTube on the map with the virality of their fan-favorite musical pre-tape sketches like “Lazy Sunday ,” “I’m on a Boat ,” and the Emmy-winning “Dick in a Box .”

When Schaffer and Taccone’s contracts were up after five years, both decided to leave the show. But Samberg stayed and found himself picking up the slack.

“I was basically left in charge of making the shorts, which I never pretended like I could do without them,” Samberg said.

He went on to describe his jam-packed schedule with the additional responsibility.

“We were writing stuff for the live show Tuesday night all night, the table read Wednesday, then being told now come up with a digital short so write all Thursday [and] Thursday night, don’t sleep, get up, shoot Friday, edit all night Friday night and into Saturday, so it’s basically like four days a week you’re not sleeping, for seven years. So I just kinda fell apart physically.”

After seven seasons, Samberg made the difficult decision to quietly leave “SNL”after