For six seasons on Saturday Night Live, comedian Jay Pharoah wowed viewers with his spot-on impressions of Jay Z, Drake, Will Smith, Denzel Washington, and President Barack Obama. But this fall, Pharoah will not be returning to the famed Studio 8H in Rockefeller Center for the upcoming 42nd season.

“I’m not coming back to S.N.L.,” Pharoah confirmed officially for the first time to Vanity Fair while attending Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards, held at Madison Square Garden, in New York. “Transitions on shows happen all the time, but I won’t be back.”

Earlier this month, it was reported that cast members Taran Killam and Pharoah had been let go from the series when their contracts were not renewed. Killam said in an interview with Uproxx that leaving Saturday Night Live was not his choice. Pharoah, though, has remained mum about being cut from the late-night NBC show until now.

When asked if he left the show on his own terms or if show-runner Lorne Michaels had let him go, he gave a coy reply: “Listen, man, transitions happen at the show,” he said. “That’s how it happens and I’m just looking forward to getting on White Famous. That’s what I’m on now.”

The funnyman does already have his next project lined up: the aforementioned Showtime comedy series, produced by Jamie Foxx. And even if he didn't choose to leave the weekly live show, Pharoah is being a good sport: he even joked with DJ Khaled about losing his job during the V.M.A.s. While on-air, Pharoah jokingly asked Khaled, “What do you do? You don’t rap. You don’t sing. You’re just a producer.” Khaled replied, “What happened to you on Saturday Night Live? You tryin’ to book me something?” Pharoah's response: “Hey, man, I really don’t have that connect no more.”

Joking aside, Pharoah will miss the camaraderie he shared with his S.N.L. castmates. “You brush shoulders with so many people and I’m going to miss seeing everybody every day,” he told Vanity Fair. “I love them. They are my family.”