Lorne Michaels says ‘the people in charge’ forced Shane Gillis’ firing from Saturday Night Live: ‘I was angry’

“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 remembered thinking.

Lorne Michaels didn’t want to fire Shane Gillis from Saturday Night Live.

The top dog at SNL revealed that the decree to dismiss the controversial comedian from the variety series came from his superiors in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. “That was very strong from the people in charge,” he said. “And obviously I was not on that side, but I understood it.”

Lorne Michaels and Shane Gillis.Jamie McCarthy/Getty; Roy Rochlin/Getty

Michaels acknowledged that Gillis’ racist and homophobic comments weren’t necessarily appropriate, but he didn’t think they were enough to constitute his removal from SNL. “He said something stupid, but it got blown up into the end of the world,” Michaels said. “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.”

Gillis was originally announced as one of three new featured players who would debut in SNL‘s 45th season in 2019. After his hiring, footage from a 2018 podcast appearance went viral, wherein Gillis used multiple slurs and made homophobic and racist jokes.

The comedian released a statement on social media after the footage generated significant controversy. “I’m a comedian who pushes boundaries,” he wrote. “I sometimes miss. If you go through my 10 years of comedy, most of it bad, you’re going to find a lot of bad misses. I’m happy to apologize to anyone who’s actually offended by anything I’ve said. My intention is never to hurt anyone but I am trying to be the best comedian I can be and sometimes that requires risks.”

The controversy prompted SNL to dismiss Gillis from the cast before he ever appeared in an episode. “After talking with Shane Gillis, we have decided that he will not be joining SNL,” the show said in a statement at the time. “We want SNL to have a variety of voices and points of view within the show, and we hired Shane on the strength of his talent as comedian and his impressive audition for SNL. We were not aware of his prior remarks that have surfaced over the past few days. The language he used is offensive, hurtful and unacceptable. We are sorry that we did not see these clips earlier, and that our vetting process was not up to our standard.”

Gillis released another statement following his firing. “I’m a comedian who was funny enough to get SNL,” he wrote on social media. “That can’t be taken away. Of course I wanted an opportunity to prove myself at SNL, but I understand it would be too much of a distraction. I respect the decision they made. I’m honestly grateful for the opportunity. I was always a [Mad TV] guy anyway.”

Shane Gillis hosting ‘Saturday Night Live’ in February 2024.Will Heath/NBC via Getty

The comedian has enjoyed a successful career despite the controversy — he launched a popular standup special, Beautiful Dogs, in 2023, and starred in the comedy series Tires on Netflix this year. The show was renewed for a second season, and the streamer also commissioned a second standup special from Gillis earlier this year. Gillis also had a recurring role on Pete Davidson’s Bupkis, which Michaels executive produced in 2023.

SNL tapped Gillis to host the show in February, and he joked about his firing from the show in his monologue. “I was fired from this show a while ago,” he said. “Don’t look that up, please. Please don’t Google that. It’s fine. Don’t even worry about it. I probably shouldn’t be up here honestly. I should be at home. I should be a high school football coach.”

Michaels defended the decision to collaborate with Gillis in September.  “When he came back to the show last year [to host], we saw, ‘Oh right, he’s really talented, and he would’ve been really good for us,'” the producer told THR. “His life turned out well without SNL, but my point with it is everything became way too serious. It was like a mania. And the velocity of cancellation — and lots of people deserved to not be liked — it just became not quite the Reign of Terror, but it was like you’re judging everybody on every position they have on every issue.”