First on LateNighter: One of Saturday Night Live’s longest-serving producers has come out of retirement: Ken Aymong has rejoined the show in his familiar role as supervising producer.
Aymong first joined SNL in 1985 as an associate producer and was promoted to supervising producer two years later. Over the next three decades, he became one of Lorne Michaels’ most trusted lieutenants—overseeing the show’s budget, and other production logistics.
Along the way, he earned 23 Emmy Award nominations, helping guide SNL through some of its most memorable eras.
In 2021, at age 71, Aymong decided to step away. “It was just time,” he told New York Magazine’s Reeves Wiedeman.
His departure was fondly acknowledged on air that fall, when Colin Jost held up a cue card during the Season 47 premiere’s goodnights reading, “We’ll miss you, Ken.”
But as it turns out, SNL couldn’t stay without him for long. Aymong returned behind the scenes for last winter’s 50th anniversary homecoming concert, once again credited as supervising producer. What started as a one-off reunion has apparently evolved into something more permanent.
To hear him tell it, Aymong’s comeback wasn’t exactly premeditated, “Lorne called me, and he just goes, ‘So this is what we’re doing for the 50th,’ and he keeps talking,” Aymong told New York earlier this year.. “Before I got a chance to say anything, he says, ‘I gotta run.’”
SNL returns with its second episode of Season 51 next Saturday Oct.11 with host Amy Poehler and musical guest Role Model. Next week’s episode will mark 50 years to the day SNL premiered on Oct. 11, 1975.
