The question of who will be Lorne Michaels‘ SNL successor has long been a subject of speculation, both inside the show and out. If Michaels has a plan, he doesn’t share it in Morgan Neville’s new documentary Lorne, which opens in theaters this Friday. But Neville—after two years of unprecedented backstage access—has some ideas.
“I don’t know if Lorne would be replaced by one person,” the filmmaker tells LateNighter’s podcast partner, The Saturday Night Network, in a new interview set for release this Thursday night. “I think in a way it might be two or maybe even three people.”
As for when that transition might come, Neville suggests it won’t be anytime soon. “I think Lorne will stay as long as he can stay,” he says.
Neville’s view is shaped by the time he spent inside Saturday Night Live while making Lorne, during which he observed a producer still deeply embedded in the day-to-day life of the show.
“Lorne is there every day,” he says. “He still shows up… He has not missed a week the entire time he’s been there.”
That durability, Neville suggests, is part of why succession remains such an open question. “On some deep level it’s like he is the show and the show is him.”
Neville has made similar observations elsewhere. In an appearance on Matt Belloni’s podcast The Town last week, he noted that Michaels is effectively doing two jobs. The first is the one everyone sees: managing “all the talent and the writers and the people who are famous and funny.”
The second is less visible, but just as critical—managing up.
Michaels, he said, has spent decades cultivating relationships with network and corporate leadership, giving him unusual leverage to protect the show’s sprawling budget. “What he has is a gravitas that can manage up and can protect the show from its crazy budget,” Neville says. “It’s a unicorn in that way.”
That dynamic could shape what comes next. While names like Tina Fey and Seth Meyers are often floated as potential successors, Neville suggests any future structure would likely require both creative leadership and institutional clout.
“You need some figurehead that can do what Lorne can do,” Neville says, including calling “pretty much any famous person” to secure hosts and cameos—something far easier, he notes, “if you’re somebody who everybody knows.”
Whoever takes over can also expect a different financial reality.
“The show is so incredibly wasteful,” Neville says—an admission Michaels makes to Steve Martin in the documentary. “He also believes that the waste is part of what makes it great.”
The current version of the show can “play and do stupid things,” including sinking huge sums into sketches and pretapes that never make it to air. It’s a freedom that many expect NBC to revisit once Michaels steps aside.
The show will continue—Neville speculates that SNL‘s IP may be more valuable than NBC itself—but evolution is inevitable.
There are clear areas for potential cuts, including “huge casts, huge writing staffs, huge film production units,” Neville says. “I get it from a network perspective. If you don’t have Lorne there, that’s pretty pricey.”
For now, though, succession remains an abstract concern inside Studio 8H.
With a live, 90-minute show to mount each week, cast and crew are far more focused on making it to Saturday night than on what comes after Michaels. “I don’t think many people there are long-term thinkers,” Neville says, “which is funny because Lorne is the ultimate long-term thinker.”
Whenever that transition does come, one thing seems certain.
“It won’t be the same,” Neville says, “because he’s not there to protect it.”
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he’s a unc at the show so he needs to leave the show forever and ever