Posted in: NBC, Opinion, Peacock, TV, TV | Tagged: opinion, saturday night live, snl

SNL 50: Shane Gillis Has a Chance to Prove If Lorne Michaels Was Right

Returning tonight to host SNL a second time, will comedian/actor Shane Gillis seize the opportunity to confirm Lorne Michaels' faith in him?

"We had a bad time when I added Shane Gillis to the cast [in 2019]. He got beat up for things that he'd done years earlier [racist and homophobic jokes], and the overreaction to it was so stunning — and the velocity of it was 200 Asian companies were going to boycott the show. It became a scandal, and I go, 'No, no, he's just starting, and he's really funny, and you don't know how we're going to use him.' And 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.' Now, 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 as opposed to, 'Are they any good at the thing they do?' I do think that period is winding down, and I believe the people who do awful things will still be punished." That's what NBC's Saturday Night Live EP Lorne Michaels had to say to The Hollywood Reporter back in September 2024 regarding the decision to fire comedian and actor Shane Gillis from the cast back in 2019 – and tonight, Gillis will get a chance to prove him right.

Back in 2019, Gillis was officially announced as joining the SNL cast – only for the long-running late-night sketch comedy and music series to part ways with him only days after recordings of racist, sexist, and homophobic comments surfaced as part of a YouTube channel called Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast. "After talking with Shane Gillis, we have decided that he will not be joining SNL. 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 a comedian and his impressive audition for SNL," shared an SNL spokesperson regarding the decision at the time. "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."

Five years later, Michaels would welcome Gillis back to host the February 24th episode of Season 49, with Michaels sharing his thoughts in September 2024 (as noted above) and with the WSJ. Magazine in October 2024. In both instances, Michaels addressed what he called an "overreaction" to Gillis' previous comments. "He said something stupid, but it got blown up into the end of the world. 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 shared with WSJ. Magazine. Michaels also revealed that it was NBC's call and not his. "That [the call to fire Gillis] was very strong from the people in charge. And obviously, I was not on that side, but I understood it," Michaels said, noting that he kept in contact with Gillis after the firing and that his being against the actor and comedian being fired was a factor in bringing Gillis back to host.

As for Gillis' return to host in Season 49, our review found the episode to be slightly above average, at best – clocking in at a 6 on our ten-point review scale. "But this is about last night's show and getting some sense of what Gillis would've brought to SNL since he was this close to becoming a cast member. And yet, he couldn't even nail the one thing tailor-made for stand-up comics – the opening monologue," read our original review at one point. "As we said, it didn't improve when we moved on to the sketches, with Gillis coming across as himself no matter what character or situation they gave him – like he was just trying to survive each sketch while stressing over the next one. Again, if this was any other host, then I could understand… but Giles was almost an SNL cast member. We would and should expect better."

But since that time, Gillis's star had gotten brighter and brighter, including the hit Netflix series Tires and teaming with Post Malone for a Bud Light Super Bowl ad. And now, he finds himself returning to Studio 8H with a different vibe than he did the previous season – which means the pressure is really on for him to prove Michaels right. As unimpressive as Gillis' first appearance was (save for a Cut For Time sketch), quite a few of his fans have defended him by arguing that it was a stressful situation that he was in, so he should be cut some slack. While we're not sure that we entirely buy into that argument, it's valid enough to be given the benefit of the doubt – which is why expectations tonight should be higher. Now, we have a host who is hosting for his second time, was nearly an SNL cast member, and has gained more comedic experience since that time – a perfect combination for what should be a minimum 8.5 show.

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