‘SNL’ Star Believes Show Should End When This Happens

Many fans of Saturday Night Live are always trying to guess when the members of the cast are going to exit, doubly so with longtime player Kenan Thompson. But for him, he might be there to see the end of it all according to his take on how the show should wrap.

The show has been around since 1975 and will be heading into its 50th season in fall 2024. For Thompson, that should be the endpoint for the series, or at least that’s what he tells Charlemagne Tha God on a recent episode of the host’s Comedy Central series.

“OK, well I need to start planning,” Thompson told the host. “[Lorne Michaels] will be close to 80 years old at that point. He’s the one that’s had his touch on the whole thing so, if somebody tries to come into his shoes, it’s a good opportunity for NBC to save money as well. Maybe they might slash the budget, and at that point, you can’t really do the same kind of show, so that’s really unfair to just really watch it really go down in flames or whatever because of those restrictions. It’d just be a different thing.”

Thompson has been a part of SNL since joining in 2003, with his time in comedy stretching back to his time on All That in 1994. He’s become a lynchpin for the sketch comedy show during his tenure, sometimes saving a sketch with his reactions. For him, though, it is Michaels who is the real key to the show’s long success.

He’s not too far off either. While the reasons for any success are due to a team effort, the show almost tanked entirely after Michaels left for the first time in 1980. While Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo were surefire stars of this period, the show struggled and went through some odd cast shakeups.

He’d return in 1985, fired most of the cast from that season, and then crafted the 1986 lineup that would lead the show into its success with Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, Jon Lovitz, Mike Myers, Adam Sandler, David Spade, Chris Farley, and many others.

It’s safe to say that SNL would not be the cultural document it has become with Lorne Michaels at the helm. And while those older casts likely weren’t going to mutiny over his original exit and replacement, it’s harder to see the current crop continue on. “Capping it at 50 might not be a bad idea,” Thompson added. “I don’t know.”