Fred Armisen Confirms Exit from SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE

TVGuide.com reports that Fred Armisen has confirmed rumors that he will not be returning to NBC's Saturday Night Live when the sketch comedy begins its new season.

"I didn't do any kind of official announcement, but I really felt like it was obvious," Armisen commented to Splitsider of his final appearance on the show. "An ending that was a love letter to all the music I grew up with, and also to my friends and to SNL and to Lorne [Michaels] and to the cast. There was a lot of emotion attached to it, but it was a very positive emotion."

The comedian has been a mainstay on the show since 2002. He will join fellow cast mates Bill Hader and Jason Sudeikis, who previously announced their Exit from the series. According to the report, Armisen will now spend his time working on his comedy show Portlandia, which was recently renewed for two additional seasons by IFC.

"It felt very natural. It felt like a very healthy good time to do it," Armisen told Splitsider. "It just felt like I was very happy, maybe this is like a good time to do it. ... Portlandia started to pull me away more and more, schedule-wise, and I just felt like it'd be nice to focus on it a little more and go into the fall a bit more with shooting. ... I was like, I'm enjoying this so much, this'll be a good time to kind to go to the next phase."

On whether he will return to SNL in the near future, Armisen adds, "I love Saturday Night Live, and I really feel like people who have left before me have always stayed with the show. I feel like people don't really just leave in a cold way. I think people stay around in their own way."

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