Tina Fey responds to Lorne Michaels' comment that she 'could easily' take over “SNL”: 'He's irreplaceable'
Tina Fey has heard the rumors about potentially replacing Lorne Michaels as the head honcho at Saturday Night Live.
The 30 Rock star responded to Michaels' comment that she "could easily" take over the long-running comedy show when he eventually ends his time in Studio 8H. "It was nice of him to say that, and I love him very much," Fey told The Hollywood Reporter.
However, Fey doesn't think Michaels should ever retire. "He's irreplaceable," she said. "His set of gifts and skills are entirely unique. His eye for talent! He's one of the last three people in show business who actually understand everything. I'll leave it at that."
In the same THR piece, Fey's longtime friend and collaborator, Amy Poehler, also acknowledged the speculation that the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt creator could take over at SNL. "Me on that would be so clickbaity," Poehler said, declining to address the topic before continuing, "I will say that I feel like there are very few things that Tina wouldn't do well in this world."
Michaels' full comment to Entertainment Tonight on the 2023 Emmys red carpet came after a question specifically asking if Fey was in the running to replace him at SNL. "It could easily be Tina Fey, but you know, there are a lot of people who are there now who are also, you know…" he said at the time.
Michaels suggested that he might step down from SNL following the show's 50th anniversary special, back when that milestone was over a year away — but now that the celebration is over, there's been no indication that the longtime producer is slowing down anytime soon.
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Tina Fey and Lorne Michaels in 2018Other SNL vets have cast doubts on Michaels' supposedly-imminent retirement. Last year, Seth Meyers, who worked on the show from 2001 to 2014, told Mike Birbiglia, "I think this is a false narrative that Lorne is going anywhere." He suggested that "it made sense for Lorne — who's, yeah, got a flair for the dramatic — to say, 'I think I''l be done at 50," but opined, "It's not like Lorne's got something else he wants to do more than this."
"Weekend Update" cohost Michael Che also indicated that he couldn't imagine anyone else at the helm of SNL. "Oh my God, could you imagine having to do that?" Che said after Howard Stern asked if he'd consider taking the reins. "I don't know how you do that job and not be Lorne. It's in his image, and it's gonna be so strange."
Fey first came aboard SNL as a writer in 1997, and became the show's first female head writer in 1999. The following year, she became an on-camera cast member and the co-anchor of the "Weekend Update" segment. She ultimately departed the show in 2006 to create and star in 30 Rock, her sitcom that drew heavy inspiration from her time writing for SNL.
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Michaels has executive produced many of Fey's subsequent endeavors, including 30 Rock, Baby Mama, and Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. In the same THR interview, Fey explained how Michaels helped get the 2024 movie musical of Mean Girls into production.
"[Paramount] kept moving the line of what it would take to get it made; you would've thought this wasn't a piece of IP that they knew about," she explained. "If I was boots on the ground, Lorne was the general. He was helping me say, 'Yes, for sure,' to the studio and then figure out how to still get everything done."
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