Michaels\u2019 possible retirement from the show<\/a>. <\/p>\n\u201cEveryone is talking about cast departures for SNL and yet, it\u2019s actually Lorne Michaels leaving lol,\u201d one viewer suggested on X, with a second responding: \u201cWill Ferrell and Paul McCartney does kind of feel like giving a dog a steak before putting it down.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a separate discussion thread on Reddit, one fan described the pairing as \u201cthe Holy Grail if you will. The Finale.\u201d Others, however, disagreed, with one arguing that Steve Martin and Paul Simon would make the ultimate send-off for Michaels. <\/p>\n
![\"Will](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Will-Ferrell-and-Paul-McCartney.png\")
Will Ferrell (left) and Paul McCartney (right) have been tapped to close out ‘Saturday Night Live’ season 51 (Getty)<\/p>\n
Many felt similarly about Simon of the duo Simon & Garfunkel. \u201cI would think Paul Simon would be the final Lorne show musical guest,\u201d a second agreed. <\/p>\n
Another, however, made the case for Tina Fey as Michaels\u2019 final guest host. \u201cI would think so if you replaced Will Ferrell with Tina Fey,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLorne will never retire,\u201d another insisted, followed by one quipping: \u201cRetire to what? His blueberry farm? If he wanted to retire, he would have done so already.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Independent has contacted SNL for comment. <\/p>\n
![\"Lorne](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Lorne-Michaels.jpeg\")
Lorne Michaels has been the driving force behind ‘SNL’ since creating it in 1975, aside from a brief hiatus in the early 1980s (Getty)<\/p>\n
Michaels, 81, has been the creative force behind the late-night sketch comedy series since its 1975 creation, aside from a brief hiatus in the 1980s. <\/p>\n
Retirement rumors surrounding Michaels are nothing new. Each year, fans speculate that the producer will step down and pass the torch to one of his favorite performers, such as Tina Fey or Seth Meyers.<\/p>\n
Still, he has maintained for years that he has no plans to retire.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to do it as long as I feel I can do it,\u201d he declared in a 2024 interview with The New York Times.<\/p>\n
Next Friday, a new documentary about Michaels will be released. Directed by Morgan Neville, Lorne will paint an intimate portrait of the comedian, featuring sit-down interviews with several former SNL stars, including Fey, Maya Rudolph, John Mulaney, Andy Samberg, Conan O’Brien, Chris Rock and more. <\/p>\n
New episodes of Saturday Night Live air Saturdays at 11:30 p.m., with the season 51 finale premiering May 16. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":["post-374318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}