Kenan Thompson is the longest-tenured cast member in Saturday Night Live history, which should give him seniority when it comes to making decisions about the sketch show. That’s unfortunately not how it works, however, not with Lorne Michaels still kicking around Studio 8H. He’s the one who ultimately decides what makes it to air and when the show will (eventually?) end. But maybe he’ll listen to Kenan?
“The rumor is, the show is ending at its 50th season because Mr. Lorne Michaels doesn’t want to do it after age 80. Is that true?” host Charlamagne tha God asked Thompson on his Comedy Central series, Hell of a Week. The former-All That and Kenan and Kel star pretended to play dumb (“Is that a rumor?”) before directly responding to the rumor. “There could be a lot of validity to that rumor, because 50 is a good number to stop at,” he said. “That’s an incredible package. He will be, probably, close to 80 years old at that point, and you know, he’s the one who’s had his touch on the whole thing.”
Thompson continued:
“So, if somebody tries to come into his shoes, you know it’s a good opportunity for NBC to save money as well, you know what I’m saying? So they might slash the budget and then at that point, you can’t really do the same kind of show. So that’s unfair to watch it just really go down kind of in flames or whatever for real because of those restrictions… Capping it a 50 might not be a bad idea,”
SNL has been around for 47 seasons — it could last forever, but 50 is a nice round number to end things. Then again, I thought the same thing about The Simpsons after 20 seasons… and 30 seasons… and now it’s up 33 seasons, with season 34 premiering in September. One thing’s for sure: the SNL series finale, whenever it happens, will feature Paul Simon. Even if he’s no longer with us, he’ll still be there, somehow.
You can watch the Hell of a Week video above.
(Via The Wrap)