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Kenan Thompson isn’t calling it a day at Saturday Night Live just yet—far from it. In fact, the comedy veteran is thinking long-term… like forever long.
“It would be cool if I never left the show. That’d be crazy,” he told Entertainment Weekly with the same chill enthusiasm that’s kept him thriving on Studio 8H for 22 straight seasons.
Yes, you read that right—22 seasons.
Thompson, now 46, first joined the legendary NBC sketch series in 2003, and since then, he’s racked up five Emmy nominations and even took home a win in 2018 for co-writing the now-iconic sketch Come Back, Barack.
Originally, Kenan’s goal was to hit 20 seasons.
Mission accomplished—and then some. “I guess the only other milestone would be just to be the forever cast member. Just never leave the show,” he mused.
“I don’t really know. Thirty [seasons] is like, okay, that’s just another number kind of thing. Twenty was just such a thing that nobody had ever done.”
He added, “People had gotten into their teens before, but nobody had gotten all the way up to 20. And then I was close to doing it. Once I started getting into 17, I was like, well, if I can, I would love to stick around till 20. And now here we are at 22, so I don’t know.”
As for who’ll stick around longer—Kenan or the show’s legendary creator, Lorne Michaels—Thompson isn’t making any bets.
“That’s a great question. I have no idea. I feel like we’ll both just ride until the wheels fall off.”
And really, can you blame him for wanting to hold on tight?
As he told PEOPLE earlier this year, working on SNL is “hands down” the best job in TV.
“It’s crazy because most people do eight [seasons] max, you know what I mean? Or 12. But it’s a one-of-a-kind place,” he said.
“It’s the people in front and behind that embrace it, need it. So when they call me, what, am I not supposed to oblige the greatest job in the world? So it’s just out of love. What a blessing it is to have steady employment.”
