Kenan Thompson Talks SNL Ending Rumors

Kenan Thompson may be the longest-tenured cast member in the history of SNL, but he’s aware that the show itself will eventually come to an end.

During an appearance on Hell of a Week with Charlamagne Tha God, Kenan addressed the rumor that the show would finish with Season 50 — aka in 2025.

“OK, well I need to start planning,” he joked, before more seriously adding, “There could be a lot of validity to that rumor because 50 is a good number to stop at.”

“[Lorne Michaels] will be close to 80 years old at that point,” he continued. “He’s the one that’s had his touch on the whole thing, so if somebody tries to come into his shoes, it’s a good opportunity for NBC to save money as well.”

For Kenan, a show without Lorne likely isn’t worth doing: “Maybe they might slash the budget, and at that point, you can’t really do the same kind of show, so that’s really unfair to just really watch it really go down in flames or whatever because of those restrictions. It’d just be a different thing.”

“Capping it at 50 might not be a bad idea,” he added. “I don’t know.”