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Amy Poehler frees up her Saturday nights

Talk about your good news, bad news, good news days. Fresh off her snarky and brilliant performance as Hilary Clinton (opposite Tina Fey‘s Sarah Palin), Amy Poehler has revealed that she is leaving Saturday Night Live in November. Oh, Amy, please don’t go.

But, as Amy said in the new issue of Men’s Vogue, it is simply time to say goodbye:

It’s gonna be really hard – Boyz II Men hard – to say goodbye to yesterday. SNL was dangerous, late-night, last-minute and star-studded, but like any good drug, you need to know when to put it down.
But if that’s the bad news, the second round of good news is that after her maternity leave is over, Amy will star in her own previously-announced NBC series from producers of The Office. The TV gods taketh, and they giveth back. While details about the new show are scarce, it’s great to hear that another talented, funny, deserving SNL alum will have her chance to shine on the small screen, though Amy is already producing an animated children’s series, The Mighty B!, for Nickelodeon.

Still, Amy’s departure from SNL is a big hit to the show’s gender equality funny bone. While the long-running sketch comedy series has showcased a slew of great female comics – from Gilda Radner to Jane Curtain and Molly Shannon– over the years, it’s always been more heavily male dominated. Depending on Amy’s replacement, that would leave only two female cast members this season: Kristen Wiig and Casey Wilson. Amy’s departure might be the final death knell for my watching SNL. While intermittently funny at best, Amy’s tenure at the “Weekend Update” desk meant there was always at least one segment guaranteed to get a chuckle out of me. Without her at all? Hello, crickets. The best case scenario is for Kristen might pick up Amy’s comedy mantel and become the driving force of the late-night jalopy.

The news also means Lorne Michaels and company are probably thanking their lucky stars that Hilary didn’t prevail in the primaries, since without Amy as her doppelganger, there would be no one left to master her so-called cackle. Though, if there is any justice in the universe, Amy’s exit will not mean we’ve seen the last of her eerily, hilariously accurate Christian Siriano impersonation. Amy having a new show is fierce, but Saturday Night Live may now be a hot mess. Will you watch SNL after she goes? Do you have any favorite Amy moments? And can the NBC powers-that-be please program Amy and Tina’s shows back-to-back so they can be together again, like they belong?

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