‘SNL’ Star Kenan Thompson Lands Sitcom Pilot Order at NBC

Kenan Thompson may be ready to leave Saturday Night Live behind, as NBC has recently ordered a sitcom pilot starring the comedian.

Thompson may leave the cast of SNL if his new show, Saving Kenan, goes to series, according to a report by TV Line. He has been on the sketch show since 2003, and it may be time for a change at last. Saving Kenan is a family sitcom starring Thompson as a recently-widowed father, doing his best to give his family a sense of normalcy.

The show would be a single-camera comedy, with Thompson serving as the star and an executive producer. SNL creator Lorne Michaels would also be an EP, but so far, no other casting news is available. The other major role in the show would reportedly be Thompson’s fictional father-in-law, who is looking to get more involved in his grandkids’ lives after the death of their mother. Thompson would begrudgingly come to accept this.

The pilot will be written by Jackie Clarke, a comedian and screenwriter known for her work on shows like Superstore and Happy Endings, and appearances on shows like Comedy Central’s This Is Not Happening. Clarke would also be an executive producer on the show.

If all goes according to plan, Saving Kenan could premiere in the fall as part of NBC’s 2019-2020 TV slate. If that happens, Thompson reportedly plans to leave Saturday Night Live for good. He is currently the longest-running cast member in the show’s history, having been in the line-up for 16 seasons. When he joined, he was the first cast member ever to be born after SNL‘s premiere in 1975.

Thompson has never seemed intent on leaving SNL, or using it to launch himself into larger roles as many cast members have. On a 2015 episode of Mac Maron’s WTF Podcast, he talked about his love for the show even as he described the grueling working conditions, and just last summer, he said that he would gladly stay “forever” in an interview with Deadline.

“They’re like my big giant family,” he said of his co-workers. “It’s spending quality time and doing quality work with quality people. If it was possible I’d stay forever and just retire as the one guy that never left, basically. I’d be totally fine with that, but at the same time I still have aspirations.”

Thompson said that those aspirations include launching his own studio, with the hopes of building something like Steven Spielberg or Tyler Perry. Perhaps Saving Kenan would be his first step in that direction, but only time will tell.