Why Leslie Jones Doesn’t Miss ‘SNL’ at All: ‘I Wasn’t Very Free There’

Former “Saturday Night Live” cast member Leslie Jones opened up about why she doesn’t miss her time on the show.

In a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight, the comedian expressed gratitude toward NBC and her fellow cast members, while speaking out on the challenges of the job.

“I don’t miss it at all,” she told ET. “I miss Kenan [Thompson] but I don’t miss [it]. That job was hard, man. That job was like two jobs and very restrictive too. I wasn’t very free there.”

After a breakout performance and five seasons on the show, Jones surprised “SNL” fans when she announced in 2019 that she wouldn’t be returning the next year. The comedian, who joined as a writer before being promoted to a full-time cast member, has since moved on to hosting a revamped version of ABC’s long-running game show, “Supermarket Sweep.”

“It’s just, you know, a comedian’s dream come true,” she said of her new job.

Jones shared that she has been training for her new role, ever since she tried out for the show as a contestant. “I trained my roommate; I made her watch the show; I made her run up and down grocery stores,” she said. “So when we got to the audition, we were destroying teams, and she turns around and looks at me and says, ‘I have to go to work.’ I was like… ‘I’m not riding home with you.’”

Launched on ABC in 1965, the game show reached new heights with the 1990 revival hosted by David Ruprecht. Ruprecht’s version of the show ran for five seasons until 1995 and for another three, from 2000 to 2003.