Lorne Michaels says NBC decided to fire Shane Gillis from SNL: "I was angry"

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https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/lor...on-1236189731/

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Michaels again made it clear that he disagreed with Gillis' 2019 firing for using anti-Asian and homophobic slurs, saying it was NBC's decision to drop the comedian days after his hiring announcement. “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.'” Michaels said it was NBC’s decision to fire Gillis and not his own, adding: “That was very strong from the people in charge. And obviously I was not on that side, but I understood it.” In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter published in September, Michaels said of Gillis' firing: "the overreaction to it was so stunning...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."