Posted by Adam

Thursday August 26, 2010

WILL Forte is leaving Saturday Night Live!

The hunky funnyman — who has been on the hit comedy show for eight seasons — is moving on from SNL “to pursue other opportunities,” his publicist Lewis Kay said Thursday.

Kay said Forte — who joined the cast in 2002 as a featured player — is “eternally grateful” to SNL producer Lorne Michaels and to “all the incredible people he worked with over the years” for his successful run on the show.

Shortly after joining the show, Forte was upgraded to regular cast member and took over the role of then-president George W. Bush when Will Ferrell left the show and was featured as a number of recurring characters, including Falconer and MacGruber.

Forte starred in and co-wrote the SNL spinoff film MacGruber, which was released in May but bombed at the box office.

NBC has declined to comment on any potential replacements. The new season of SNL kicks off September 25 at 11:30PM.

Tags: saturday night live, tv news, will forte