Kenan Thompson comedy gets pilot order; is he leaving SNL?
According to a report from TVLine, this NBC comedy is currently titled Saving Kenan, and the story here is going to revolve around the actor as a recently-widowed father, someone who is “determined to be everything for his kids while begrudgingly letting his persistent father-in-law become more involved in their lives.” There is no news at the moment on who is going to be playing the part of the father-in-law, but we’ve got a feeling that they will probably be a known actor, as well. Much of the fun of this show could be about watching Thompson and this actor go toe-to-toe, and with the right person in this role we could easily see this show getting a series order.
Of course, here’s the interesting trade-off — if this show ends up getting a series order over at NBC, that does mean that Thompson will likely departure SNL, where he is the longest-tenured cast member in the history of the show. He’s meant so much to this show for well over a decade; he’s spent the majority of his life at this point within the world of sketch comedy.
Thompson is an executive-producer on the series and, to go along with that, SNL creator Lorne Michaels is also involved. Jackie Clarke will write the official pilot script.
What we hope at the moment is that NBC makes a firm decision on the future of Saving Kenan at least a couple of weeks before the SNL finale, mostly because if this does turn out to be his final season on the show, we want there to be a huge send-off. Kenan deserves an opportunity to go out with some sort of huge celebration, one that features some of the greatest performers who worked with him on the series over the years as well as some other celebrity cameos. He is one of the most-important cast members in the show’s history, even if he doesn’t have the star power of many others who have been a part of it over years. There are few other performers over time who have done as much with, at times, not a whole lot of information.
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How sad would you be in the event that Kenan leaves Saturday Night Live, and would you want to watch his new show? Be sure to share right now in the comments. (Photo: NBC.)