“SNL ”Alum Seth Meyers Recalls Lorne Michaels’ Reaction After ‘Weekend Update’ Bombed 3 Weeks in a Row

Meyers joined ‘Saturday Night Live’ as a castmate in 2001

NEED TO KNOW

• Seth Meyers looked back on how long it took him to feel “settled” at Saturday Night Live, revealing that it took seven years
• Meyers remembered an interaction he had with Lorne Michaels that cemented that feeling for him
• Meyers was a cast member and writer from 2001 to 2014, when he left to host Late Night

Seth Meyers is looking back at his intense experience at Saturday Night Live.

Meyers, 52, spoke about his time on SNL during an audience Q&A in between commercial breaks of his show Late Night with Seth Meyers. In a video posted to YouTube on Aug. 14, an audience member asked him if he has “a favorite Lorne Michaels story.” Michaels, 81, created SNL and produced it for the first five seasons, beginning in 1975. He returned to the series in 1985 and has produced the show ever since. 

“When people are like, ‘Did you ever feel settled at SNL, like you knew everything was going to be okay?’ And it took like maybe seven years,” Meyers admitted.

Meyers began his TV career at SNL, where he joined the cast in 2001. Five years later, he became a co-head writer of the series, alongside Tina Fey and Harper Steele. When Fey, 56, left at the end of the 2005-2006 season, Meyers took over “Weekend Update,” the series’ satirical news segment, with Amy Poehler. 

When Meyers finally felt settled at SNL, he was doing “Update” and was also the show’s head writer. “We’d had like three bad ‘Updates’ in a row,” he remembered. “And I went into Lorne’s office. I was like, ‘So, I think I have a fix for “Update.” ‘ And he’s like, ‘ “Update” is the least of my problems.’ ” 

“And I swear to God, I was like, ‘Oh!’ ” Meyers said, mimicking a flirty voice. The audience laughed. “The least of your problems? Well, well, well, Don’t be so flirty, Lorne.”

Once Poehler left SNL at the end of 2009, Meyers served as the solo anchor of “Update” until 2013. Then, he was joined by Cecily Strong, until he ultimately left the show during the 2013-2014 season. 

Soon after, in February 2014, he began hosting Late Night, taking over from Jimmy Fallon. Michaels is an executive producer of the series. 

In 2026, Michaels was the subject of a new documentary, Lorne, directed by Morgan Neville. In the doc, which is streaming now on Peacock, Neville featured roundtables of current and former cast members like John Mulaney, Andy Samberg, Conan O’Brien, Chris Rock, Maya Rudolph and Kristin Wiig, and one of the biggest takeaways was that no one really knows him, even people who have worked with him for years. 

Michaels himself said, “People have this idea that they know me.… I don’t even know myself.”

In September 2025, ahead of the show’s 51st season, Michaels told Extra the secret to keeping SNL fresh: “It’s essential that we bring new people in every year.”

He also reflected on one of the main parts of the show’s cast: high school students. “The longest four years of your life are high school, and I think that’s when people tend to attach to a cast, and that is the age of our audience in a way,” he said. “The old audience is there, but they fall asleep early.” He added that as audiences change, so “does the comedy.”

So far, the cast for the new season hasn’t been announced, but Chloe Fineman, who starred on the show for 7 years, shared that she won’t be returning. She said in part, “It’s cliché to say this but working at SNL has been the greatest privilege of my life. I still can’t really believe I got to be a part of it. I fell in love with the place the second I walked through the door.”

The 52nd season of SNL will premiere Sept. 26. Late Night with Seth Meyers will return Sept. 21.

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