Could the end of an era be in sight? Saturday Night Live is approaching a staggering half-century on the air, and Lorne Michaels has already suggested that he may finally step down from the venerated comedy program. But as to whether the ship could go on without its captain, Kenan Thompson has his doubts.
In an interview on Charlamagne tha God’s recently revamped Comedy Central show, Hell Week, the host brought up “rumors” that Michaels would step down after the 50th season (taking place in 2024-25) and the show would subsequently end. The series’ longest-running cast member joked, “Is that the rumor? …Alright, well, I need to start planning.”
Seriously, though: “There could be a lot of validity to that rumor, because 50 is a good number to stop at, you know what I’m saying,” he admitted. “That’s an incredible package. He will be, probably, close to 80 years old at that point, and you know, he’s the one who’s had his touch on the whole thing.”
Thompson has some shrewd insights on the matter given his position on the inside. “So, if somebody tries to come into his shoes… you know it’s a good opportunity for NBC to save money, as well, you know what I’m saying? So they might slash the budget and then at that point, you can’t really do the same kind of show,” he reasoned. “So that’s unfair to watch it just really go down kind of in flames, like, for real for real, because of those restrictions. So capping it at 50 might not be a bad idea, I don’t know.”
For the record, when discussing his potential retirement with Gayle King, Michaels said he’d like to see the show carry on and even hinted that he already has his replacement in mind. He wouldn’t tell King who, and perhaps he hasn’t told Thompson, either, because the sketch comedy legend sounds just as much in the dark as the rest of us. Or maybe he’s just putting his performance skills to use. Either way, it doesn’t sound like we’ll know for sure for a while yet.