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Kenan Thompson Could Leave SNL For His Own NBC Primetime Show

Kenan Thompson Could Leave SNL For His Own NBC Primetime Show

Written by Ann Brown

Sep 25, 2018

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Kenan Thompson has been on “Saturday Night Live” for 15 seasons, making him SNL’s longest-running cast member. And most recently he took home his first Emmy for his work on last season’s show. So the time might be ripe for Thompson to head out on his own–and he might.

According to word around the industry, Thompson is considering exiting for his own show, scripted by SNL’s creator. And many were more than impressed with his and fellow SNL castmate, Kate McKinnon’s opening acto for the Emmys. ” Instead, two of their SNL costars burst into song. And as it turns out, Kenan Thomspon and Kate McKinnon’s Emmys opening had Twitter wishing they were the hosts instead,” Bustle reported.

Next, Thompson may be making noise on his own. Thompson is “set to star in single-camera NBC comedy ‘Saving Larry.’ It’s a show by Christina Evangeline’s current boss, Lorne Michaels, and ‘Superstore’ writer Jackie Clarke about a single father left to raise his kid after his wife dies, and his father-in-law is there, too, per The Hollywood Reporter,” Vanity Fair reported.

Thompson will executive produce.

Thompson has  a little time to decide on his next move. “NBC orders its series in May, so even if it does get picked up, he’ll almost certainly stick through the current season of SNL,” Vanity Fair reported.

Kenan Thompson
Kenan Thompson presents the award for outstanding drama series at the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards on Monday, Sept. 17, 2018, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

 

Some of Thompson’s most memorable portrayals on SNL have been Al Sharpton, B.B. King, Bill Cosby, Van Jones, even Whoopi Goldberg and Serena Williams.

Thompson has long been a staple on television. He started out as a teenager in the scripted comedy with Nickelodeon’s “All That,” which later led to the popular show “Kenan and Kel,” done with fellow young comedian Kel Mitchell and which ran for four seasons.

Thompson is also known for his roles in the “The Mighty Ducks” franchise (he filmed his first while still in high school), “Good Burger” (filmed with Mitchell). and the title character in the 2004 film “Fat Albert.” In 2009, Thompson was a regular voice actor in the short-lived Fox cartoon series “Sit Down, Shut Up,” but it lasted only four episodes.

This summer he told Vanity Fair, “Everybody wants to be a solid performer on here, you know? I look up to Phil Hartman and Will Ferrell as two of the greatest who have ever done it, as far as reviews are concerned—but we all know certain individuals’ names because of their time there, and when they did it right, they’re the ones that are household names. I want people to say that I did it right.”

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