There Was One Widespread Rumor About the SNL Finale. It’s Time for It to Come True.
Posted by Slate
There Was One Widespread Rumor About the SNL Finale. It’s Time for It to Come True.
Posted by Slate
15 Comments
Of all the people to host the premiere of *Saturday Night Live*’s U.K. edition, they picked an American. “How do I put this politely: None of you fuckers would do it,” Tina Fey said in her monologue in March. “I’m just here as a long-term *SNL* employee to help out and answer any questions.”
If they had to pick a foreigner to launch a British (sort of) comedy show, Fey was the one person to do it. There are only a few former *SNL* cast members successful enough and still equipped to be the boss on a sketch show, even if just for a week, and her presence seemed more like that of a mentor than a mere host. She appeared in a few sketches and pretapes but was there mostly as a conduit to showcase the new, still-unknown cast. “I’m going to stay out of their way tonight as much as possible,” she said during the premiere. So far, she’s the only American to host this season. This perhaps was a test run for a much-speculated eventual announcement that Fey would be taking over from *SNL* creator Lorne Michaels when he finally retires. As millions saw on this weekend’s finale broadcast, the answer to when she’ll get to take over is … not quite yet.
Scaachi Koul breaks down Fey’s career, and why it’s her turn to take up the SNL mantle: [https://slate.com/culture/2026/05/snl-finale-tina-fey-lorne-michaels-retire.html?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_content=tina_fey_snl&utm_campaign=&tpcc=reddit-social–tina_fey_snl](https://slate.com/culture/2026/05/snl-finale-tina-fey-lorne-michaels-retire.html?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_content=tina_fey_snl&utm_campaign=&tpcc=reddit-social–tina_fey_snl)
There is a UK SNL?
Snooze. It’s the same rumor every year. Lorne’s gonna keep going til he drops dead. Tina could be great to take the mantle but she’s also got plenty going on. Why hasn’t anyone ever considered that the best candidate for successor might be one of the many no name producers who have worked on the show for decades?
I didn’t know Coco was in the running. I’m changing my vote to him.
Anyone but Keenan
This is the same BS that crops up every few months with no actual new evidence to back any of it up.
There is already a full staff of producers who work with Lorne and NBC to produce the show every week. If Tina wanted to take over: she could already be part of that. People like Steve Higgins have been running the day to day for decades now.
Here is the thing: if you’re the show runner of SNL you don’t really do anything else. It’s an all encompassing job. I don’t think Tina wants to give up everything else she’s doing to focus on one thing. Being a show runner is less about comedy and performing and more about talent management and budget creation.
They just had Paul McCartney and not a single reference to the Lorn Michael’s demand to reunite the Beatles. Or let alone Chris Farley skit…. They failed at the most simple job
She’s 55 years old. She’s not going back to SNL. Barack Obama’s not running for president again. The Beatles aren’t getting back together.
Nothing would make me happier than giving it to Colin Quinn.
I get the impression that at some point over the last decade Lorne Michaels had considered retiring but that he’s since changed his mind and is currently on the Keith Richards retirement plan, which means he intends to die on the stage, doing what he does.
Colin Jost has been there 20+ years. He is only 43. Seems like he should be a good candidate to take over.
Fey has never expressed actual interest in doing this. She already has plenty of projects and makes tons of money with a tiny fraction of the stress. It’s an absolutely terrible job unless you’re 1000% committed to it.
Lorne probably doesn’t even understand half the humor out there now
Fuck no. It’s having a good run for the past few years. We don’t need to turn it over to the architect of its worst era.
Lorne Michaels is going to keep SNL as his own until the day he’s dead. I don’t think many realize how expensive of a show SNL is to make. The second he’s gone, NBC is going to slash the budget hard to save themselves money, even though Saturday Night Live is one of the most popular shows on the network. I don’t think people realize how good it is under Lorne