Kenan Thompson not leaving Saturday Night Live, per Ellen interview
In a new interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, the series’ longest-tenured cast member ever makes it clear that he has no plans to leave before a season 45, calling it “the best job in the world.” There have been concerns about Kenan’s future for a while, most notably that he would depart the series in order to star in a new NBC comedy entitled The Kenan Show. Yet, maybe there’s a way to make both this gig and SNL work! Think about it this way — if The Kenan show starts filming in early July, he can probably hammer out a number of episodes prior to the premiere of SNL in late September. If the show films in New York, he could also probably find a way to bounce between the two for a certain period of time.
Would he be busy? Absolutely, but it could prove to be worthwhile to him.
For some more SNL discussion in video form, remember to check out some of what we’ve got below all about the most-recent episode! If you enjoy this, remember to subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube and also take a look at our official playlist.
Kenan is a workhorse, and one of the reasons why he is so appealing is his obvious humility. This is a guy who is clearly talented enough to know that he could probably do movies or try to elevate his career to some sort of different place. Yet, there’s clearly something about being on that stage at studio 8H that works for him. There is a comfort that may come for him from being on this show, but there is this rare, wonderful ability as an SNL cast member to really be able to impact a number of lives all in instant fashion. He can go out on stage, perform a part, and viewers respond to it immediately. It’s at the zenith of pop culture and people will always see him and talk about him. Sure, doing this show can be exhausting — we’ve heard many a story about the insanely-long hours that go into doing sketches during the week — but it is also incredibly rewarding when you have one of those handful of shows a season where everything clicks and you’re just able to hand out one great sketch after the next after the next.
The next new episode of SNL featuring host Adam Sandler airs this weekend, and you can preview that one by heading over to the link here. While Kenan does have a crossover with a lot of former cast members, he hasn’t been on the show that long that he remembers working with Adam. Yet, we could see the two having some great collaborations together — their comedic energy is a little bit similar in that they can come across as laid-back, but you have to figure that when it comes to the work, they are really anything but.
Are you excited to see Kenan Thompson stick around Saturday Night Live for another season? Be sure to share right now in the attached comments! (Photo: NBC.)