Why Seth Meyers Is My Top Pick To Replace Lorne Michaels At SNL


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

So, it appears as though 2025 is going to be the end of an era — and the beginning of a new one — for SNL. It will be the show’s 50th anniversary, and, if Lorene Michaels is to be believed, he’s retiring from the show that year as well.

I have long thought that Tina Fey would be the perfect person to take the show into its second 50 years. Of course, Kenan Thompson is probably the best pick to get the gig but for one thing — he just comes across as way too nice. Even though he’s been at the show about 20 years, does he have it in him to herd the cats of SNL? I could see him being given a largely ceremonial role as “Executive Producer” at the show — he would do the “Lorne Michaels”-type gags the show has had since the beginning, while someone else would actually knock heads behind the scenes to get the show done every week.

While Tina Fey would be ideal, maybe the allure of Hollywood would remain too strong for her to spend all her time running SNL? As such, the one person who could do the job for the next 20 or 30 years is Seth Meyers.

Seth Meyers, the future of SNL?

He’s doing a great job at Late Night, but he’s sort of languishing there. Why not give him the job he was born to do — run SNL? That would open up the Late Night gig and you could put a woman or minority or minority woman in the slot to placate “woke” Twitter. I think he already has some producing experience with Documentary Now! Or not. Not sure about that.

Anyway, we’ll see I guess.

John Mulvaney, Olivia Munn & SNL As Celebrity Dating Service


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The news that John Mulaney is Oliva Munn’s new baby daddy has got me thinking about how old this whole imbroglio has me feeling. Though, given Munn is 41, I think it’s safe to say what happened was she wanted a baby and she “accidently on purpose” get pregnant while she still could. (You go, girl.)

Anyway. I feel old because when I was growing up, SNL was just a TV show. Yes, I remember in the late 70s staying up way, way, way past my bedtime to watch the original Not Ready For Primetime Players, but otherwise, this business of Lorne Michaels becoming a celebrity matchmaker leaves me scratching my head.

What the what?

What about my old cultural friend would lead it to be some sort of celebrity dating service? All I can think of is a LOT of celebrities like having a direct link to the show given how culturally important it is now and how pretty much every celebrity alive passes through its doors at some point in their career.

And, for some reason, SNL’s behind the scenes office politics is legitimately interesting. I have no idea why, but I think some of it has to do with it’s interesting to hear the wild behavior of the show’s larger-than-life cast members.

Though, in passing, it’s so interesting that Great Britain doesn’t have an SNL-like show. Or, put another way, there’s no live show in the UK that is so good that it has become a cultural touchstone for global English speakers.

That’s A Pretty Big Ask, Lorne



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Apparently, Lorne Michaels is asking his current group of Not Ready For Primetime Players to sign three year contracts so they will all be there for the big 50th Anniversary season — when, presumably, Michaels with retire.

That’s a pretty big ask, in my opinion.

A sizable chunk of the SNL players have been on the show for a long, long time. I understand that Michaels wants to end his time with the show on a high note, but…really? I dunno. The last show of the season last year definitely seemed to indicate that almost everyone on the show was about to leave.

But, who knows.

All I do know is once Michaels leaves, the entire show is going to be throw into a severe crisis for no other reason than TV execs usually screw up a good thing because they’re metrics are all out of whack compared to the audiences.

Lorne Michaels Plans On Retiring In 2025: Who’s Likely To Succeed Him?


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Lorne Michaels gave an interview recently where he said 50-ish years at SNL was enough. The show first aired in 1975, so it’s reasonable to assume he’s going to retire in 2025. (He DID step away from the show for a few years in the 80s, so I guess he has some wiggle room if he wants to hang on longer.)

So, who is going to replace him? I keep writing about this because I love SNL and Michaels is such a specific-type person that it’s difficult to imagine anyone doing the show in the same way he has over the decades. But, here goes. I’m going to try to be a bit more detailed in this post than I have in my previous half-assed posts on this subject.

Tina Fey
Fey seems like the tough-as-nails broad who could keep the post-Michaels SNL humming along as if nothing had happened. And, yet, should would probably be a transitional figure. She has a Hollywood career and running SNL would be a career topper for her. She knows the show inside and out and, despite a weird tone deafness sometimes on race, her comic sensibilities are pitch-perfect for modern America.

Amy Poehler
She’s another bad ass bitch who would strike fear into the hearts of the young comics who are the heart-and-soul of the show. She did well working with Broad City and, as such, is probably a pretty good manager.

Seth Meyers
He’s young and knows SNL really well, so he might see running SNL as a real step up from languishing in late night TV. I mean, it’s not like he’s going to take over the Tonight Show — Jimmy Fallon has that gig wrapped up until the sun goes dark. Meyers seems like the “cool dad” who could step in to SNL longer term and remake it into something more modern.

Kenan Thompson
He’s perfect to take over running the show but for one thing: he just seems too nice. He would be a perfect person to replace Michaels in those skits where he hams it up, but I find it difficult to imagine Thompson being able to herd the cats of SNL each week. But he definitely knows the show, having been there 20 years. So, I dunno?

Wildcard: Lin Manuel Miranda
Usually, when TV execs find themselves in the position of replacing a legendary figure like Lorne Michaels, they do something really weird that makes no sense. So, it’s easy to imagine someone young and talented like Miranda being tapped to replace Michaels. I think he would do a great job, but he does have a burgeoning Hollywood career, so, who knows.

Wildcard: Phoebe Waller-Bridge
But for her being British and having a huge Hollywood career ahead of her, I would say Waller-Bridge would be the perfect person to run SNL because she’s young, hip and could really take the show to the next level. But, I think this suggestion has more to do with me stanning her than any real possibility of it happening.

Wildcard: Someone We Don’t Know Who Knows The Show
Since SNL has been on for 50 years, there are probably many, many people who could take over for Michaels and the show would continue on as if he never left. It’s just they’re not name-brand people, they’re behind the scenes types who just have worked there long enough — and are strong enough managers — that they could take over without anything really changing.

Identity Politics — Lorne Michaels & SNL As The Taylor Swift Of American Comedy


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Upon the news that Lorne Michaels will be feted as part of upcoming Kennedy Center Honors festivities, I saw someone complain on Twitter about how Lorne Michaels hasn’t promoted enough POC comics over the years.

That’s a fair point, and, yet, it also misses a crucial aspect of what’s going on: that’s not SNL’s function. SNL is not meant to be The Chappelle Show. It’s not meant to be edgy or challenging or go way out of its way to introduce mainstream audiences to unknown POC comics. Though the show has begun to promote non-white comics more of late which is good, SNL is meant to be the exact center of American comedy.

In this respect, SNL is similar to Taylor Swift. Tay-Tay serves a function. And that function is to be the exact center of American pop music. If you want songs about WAP, turn your ears elsewhere.

So, in a sense, woke complaints about Lorene Michaels and SNL are more attacks on the idea of any sort of “mainstream” at all. There’s nothing wrong with simply being mainstream. There are so many other off beat, edgy venues for people to enjoy non-mainstream content that it’s annoying when people attack something for being mainstream for simply being mainstream.

Ugh.

It’s this type of thinking that aggravates the culture wars and makes MAGA New Right cocksuckers want to burn the whole thing to the ground. Welcome to the New Right, as Jesse Kelly keeps say. (Double ugh.)

There are no easy answers to any of this. We’re careening towards a moment in time when either we have a MAGA autocracy and everything goes to shit, or we have a civil war and there’s some sort of culture “reset” where we all agree that having a “mainstream” this or that thing is fine. (Because once such a horrific civil war is over, people are going to cling to the traditional again — at least, that’s my thinking.)

Good luck.

The Historic Comic Genius Of Lorne Michaels & SNL


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

If my Tik-Tok feed is any indication, SNL has effortlessly become popular with another generation of Americans. This leads to how and why this keeps happening. First, let’s note that the old quip about SNL is, “It’s a mediocre restaurant in an excellent location.”

But I would suggest that this seriously misses the point about the House that Michaels Built. What makes the show so timeless is it fills the Bob Hope niche in modern America. Bob Hope’s humor was sort of like the comic strip Garfield — it was funny, but it wasn’t laugh-out-loud funny. It was comic comfort food. As such, SNL is kind of the same way — it’s often funny, but it’s rare that it’s really laugh-out-loud funny.

And that’s why SNL is probably going to grow in cultural significance for decades to come — it gives us a weekly round up of what’s on the mind of New York City liberals but it isn’t needy or pushy. It’s an enjoyable way to spend an hour and a half on a Saturday night.

If the show was as edgy as some people would have it be, SNL would quickly burn out. It would be really popular for one or two seasons and then get canceled because it was a little bit too “of the moment.”

The question of who will replace Lorne Michaels is something that I find very interesting because he’s been such a powerful figure in American entertainment for so long that while a lot of people would want the job, only one or two would actually be a good fit.

I still think Tina Fey is the perfect replacement for Michaels for various reasons, but I don’t know enough about her career goals to know if she would be interested.

Mulling Lorne Michaels’ Eventual Successor At SNL


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Let me begin by saying the only reason why I keep talking about this is, well, Lorne Michaels is 76 years old and he’s got to retire sometime. But maybe he’ll be like Queen Elizabeth II and vow to retire when he’s 100. And, let me stress, I don’t know anything and I get things wrong all the time.

Having said that, there seems to be three types of people who are in the running for Michaels’ successor — Tina Fey, Kenan Thompson and everyone else.

So, while Thompson should get it because he knows the show so well, Fey will get it because she’s got brass balls and won’t take shit from anyone. I could definitely see NBC splitting Michaels’ job into two. Thompson gets to be the comical “executive producer” that shows up every once in a while, while Fey gets to be the behind the scenes, tough as nail broad who knocks heads when need be.

Just as an outsider, it seems as though Michaels job is a unique blend of mentor and aloof manager who has his finger on the sensibilities of liberal America to the extent that he can pluck comics from obscurity. So the “everyone else” group of potential successors could be a wide range of people.

It would be very interesting if NBC didn’t pick someone with extensive SNL experience to run the show. But who knows. It’s just something interesting to think about.

Who Will One Day Replace Lorne Michaels At SNL?

Shelton Bumgarner

By Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

Lorne Michaels is a TV institution unto himself, but he’s no spring chicken. There’s going to come a point when he feels the need to retire. The only person I could possible see replacing him is, of course, Tina Fey.

Fey is at a point in her career where she might be enticed to take up running SNL. She’s the only person I can think of who has fits the sweet spot of having worked at SNL and also having the writing skill to take the show into its 50th decade.

I struggle to think of anyone else who could fill Michaels shoes. I doubt they would want to bring in an outsider, no matter how talented or powerful they might otherwise be. But if Fey wasn’t available, I guess they would have to find someone. They would need someone who was a name brand person who was just as networked in showbiz as Michaels.

I dunno. I’m stumped. But much like Queen Elizabeth, Michaels may surprise us all and simply keep going long, long, long after we assume he would otherwise retire.