Michael Che has a “Weekend Update” on why he’s sticking around “Saturday Night Live.”
The “SNL” player and co-head writer told Howard Stern this week why, despite telling “Saturday Night Live” creator Lorne Michaels that this season of the sketch comedy show would be his last, he ultimately decided to return next season.
“I 100% was leaving,” Manhattan-born Che, 39, said on SiriuxXM’s “The Howard Stern Show” Wednesday. “And the whole time Lorne’s like, ‘Yeah, OK.’ But I 100% told him I was leaving. Like at the beginning of the season, I was like, ‘I’m done. I can’t do it. I’m finished, I’m finished, I’m finished.’”
But despite how adamant he was about splitting, the funnyman, who co-anchors the “Weekend Update” segment of “SNL” alongside Colin Jost, said that “no one kind of believed it.
“I was still leaving when I said it, when I walked it back. But I walked it back ‘cause I didn’t want to distract from the season. I hate when the show feels like it’s about my BS,” Che said. “I don’t want my fellow cast members to have to answer that question in interviews.”
So, he decided to “announce it when I’m actually gone. But it came down to why I wanted to leave, which was to have time to do other things.”
And ultimately, he and Michaels, 77, came to an agreement that would afford Che that time.
“So it made it worth staying,” he said.
When Stern pointed out that Che could likely make more money by devoting his time exclusively to stand-up comedy, the comedian confessed, “My fantasy is to work the [Comedy] Cellar everyday.
“So to me, you don’t really think about the money, you think more so about that weapon of being on live television ... kind of the last place where something exciting can happen. Even if it doesn’t, the possibility is there. It’s NASCAR. Something crazy can happen. ... I think that’s still intoxicating. I think that’s why people always come back.”
But he admitted he’s at a point where he’s started to doubt “if I have anything to offer anymore,” and noted that a change of scenery is tempting, in order to “feel like you’re a stronger artist.”
The “Saturday Night Live” players who ended up leaving the show after the May 21 season finale were Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, Pete Davidson and Kyle Mooney.
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