Lorne Michaels has finally put the great retirement question to rest: He has no plans to leave Saturday Night Live.
It was back in 2020 that the SNL creator first suggested that he was planning to leave the show after the 50-year mark, telling Willie Geist on Sunday Today, “By that point, I think I really deserve to wander off.”
His comments sparked a four-year two-pronged debate: Would he leave? And who would take over for him if he did?
Now, in a new joint interview alongside “Weekend Update” co-anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che in The Hollywood Reporter, the 79 year-old Michaels has confirmed what everyone behind-the-scenes considered obvious: He’s staying put.
“Every year there are more and more people that I rely on for other things, but, in the end, you really need someone to say, ‘This is what we’re doing,’” Michaels said. “I just know that this is kind of what I do and as long as I can keep doing it, I’ll keep doing it. There’s no immediate plan.”
Asked what changed his mind, Michaels answered, “I think the times, and also there are not many network shows left, and this one has taken on [an importance]. It’s more about keeping it on course than anything else, and, obviously, I really love it.”
Colin Jost suggested that Michaels even considering retirement can be attributed to the same fatigue that affects most cast members at the end of a season, who often head into the summer saying they might not return to the show. “I think [Lorne] thought of the 50th that way… Then, as it’s getting closer, I think he’s realizing that he loves doing it.”
“I always thought that was just him strategically announcing it and having that end goal,” Jost added, “but never necessarily intending to [leave] then because it’s what he loves doing.”
Jost goes on to say that nobody inside 30 Rock really believed Michaels would retire. “You’d think there was a lot of speculation about it internally, but there really isn’t because no one who works there thinks he’s leaving,” Jost told THR.
“And all the people that are being talked about as possible successors, no one wants him to leave and no one wants to have to follow him,” he added.
Still, unless SNL ends altogether, a time without Michaels will come, which leaves the question of who could replace him an open one. “Honestly, I don’t think it could ever be done by one person again,” Michael Che predicted, echoing Michael’s comments about relying on others more. “I think it will be a full committee.”
But Che added that he doesn’t want to speculate on that point in the future, as it’s a time he doesn’t want to come. “Maybe a lot of it has to do with being a child of divorce, but I don’t want to think about Lorne leaving,” he explained. “I mean, really, nobody wants to face the reality that, at some point, he won’t be doing it.”
Season 50 of SNL kicks off on September 28.
