Getting an extension on your contract might sound like a good thing, but there’s a type that’s anything but, as Seth Meyers learned very early on in his SNL career.
While guesting on the newest episode of actor David Duchovny’s Fail Better podcast, Meyers recalled a time when his future at Saturday Night Live was on shaky ground. It was the summer of 2002, and he had just wrapped his first season as a cast member on the show.
“You basically sign a seven-year contract, but the show has your options every year,” Meyers explained. “So in the beginning, you’re like ‘Oh my god, seven years.’ And then the first summer, your agent calls and says, ‘They’re doing something which is called an extension.’ And that sounds good, right?”
At the time, the then-rookie understood that to mean that SNL was extending his deal to eight or nine years. He was quickly informed that wasn’t quite the case.
“They actually have to pick up your contract every year,” he told Duchovny. “On June 1st, let’s say. And they’re asking for an extension until August 1st [to decide].”
“And then you say, ‘What is the purpose of this extension?,’” he continued. “And the reality is: They’re going to look everywhere in America, and if they find anyone better than you, then you might not come back. So that happened.”
Given that Meyers still stands as one of SNL‘s longest tenured employees, it’s surprising to consider the prospect of a Seth-less Saturday Night Live. Still, he admitted to Duchovny that his early years were challenging.
“You think because [Lorne Michaels] has tapped you on the shoulder, you’re bound to succeed,” he said. “But then every week at SNL is now another audition, and now you’re not auditioning against other prospective cast members… And you’re realizing, ‘Oh, the standard of what is good has risen faster than I was ready for.’”
Meyers went on to credit SNL producer Mike Shoemaker—now Meyers’ showrunner/producer on Late Night and “the best friend you could have in this business”—with softening the blow. He reached out after Meyers’ agent had “very coldly” delivered the news about his extension.
“He called me and sort of tried to talk me down off the ledge,” Meyers said. “But he was also very real with me about the fact that, ‘Yeah, this isn’t great. There’s no good reason for this to happen, but it’s not happening just to you. It’s happening to some other cast members.’”
Of course, Meyers’ fate was spared that summer, and he stayed with SNL for 13 years, eventually becoming head writer and “Weekend Update” co-anchor. He departed the show to take over Late Night, where he recently signed another extension—the good kind—to keep him on the program through 2028.
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