Lorne Michaels reveals which SNL cast firing made him 'angry' with NBC

Lorne Michaels is the face of Saturday Night Live. He's been present (well, mostly) since day one, and his role in getting the show off the ground was recently dramatized in the film Saturday Night. He's the guy who seemingly calls all the shots.

Sometimes, however, NBC takes the show out of Michaels' hands. A situation such as this occurred in 2019, and Michaels discussed how frustrated he was with the network during a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal. He wanted a cast member to stay, and NBC decided they should be fired.

Michaels did not want to fire Shane Gillis in 2019

The cast member in question was Shane Gillis. The comedian was hired in 2019, but fired only a few days later when a podcast appearance surfaced in which he used racial slurs. Michaels conceded the comments did not look good on Gillis' part, but felt the network overreacted by firing him right away:

"I was angry. I thought, 'You haven’t seen what we’re going to do, and what I’m going to try to bring out in him, because I thought he was the real thing.'"

Michaels reiterated that he did not want Shane Gillis to be fired, but that the people in charge made a snap decision and he did not have the power to overrule it. “That was very strong from the people in charge," he explained. "And obviously I was not on that side, but I understood it."

The SNL boss felt the network 'overreacted'

Michaels did, however, get to bring Shane Gillis back to host Saturday Night Live in season 49. The comedian excelled in one of the best episodes of the season, and has continued to thrive via stand up shows and Netflix projects.

Michaels asserted that SNL is, at its core, a show that's willing to mock and tolerate on both sides. He slammed the notion that SNL takes sides, and has tried to maintain balance when possible. "There’s stupidity on both sides," he quipped. "Our job is to make fun of it."